Tag: abdullah-psycho

Prosecutors to drop runaway petition against teen:

Another chapter in the ongoing drama of Katherine Lester…

SCARO, Mich. (AP) — Prosecutors on Thursday agreed to withdraw a runaway juvenile petition they filed earlier this month against Katherine Lester, the Michigan teenager who flew to the Middle East to be with a man she met on the MySpace.com Internet site.

The decision was part of an agreement reached between Lester, her parents and the Tuscola County prosecutor’s office that requires her to surrender her passport, finish high school, complete counseling and not leave the state without written consent from her parents or a court order.

If Lester, 17, fails to comply with any of the terms, the prosecutor’s office may reauthorize the petition.

Following her return, Lester had been living with her father, Terry, near Flint, in part to escape media attention following her trip. But Renee Wood, a lawyer who represents Katherine Lester’s mother, Shawn, said she stayed with her mother this week and will be back in shared custody.

The teen is a member of the National Honor Society at Akron-Fairgrove Junior/Senior High School. Wood said Lester and her parents have not decided whether she will attend the school for her senior year next fall or go to a different high school.

Katherine Lester and Jimzawi still talk online, and she has said she wants to marry him.

Wood said Thursday that Shawn Lester is unhappy that the pair continue to communicate, but said she wants her daughter to make informed decisions about her future and to be honest with her.

How long before she bolts again?

Teen’s Journey May Have Legal Consequences:

More incredulous words from the ever-increasing spectacle that is the Katherine Lester situation…

“Now that our relationship is out in the open, I feel like I don’t have to go there to talk to him or to be with him,” she continued. “I plan on him coming here and us being together over here.”

Her father has declined requests from The Associated Press to interview his daughter but says her story should serve as a warning to families _ not about the dangers of the Internet but instead about the importance of good family communication.

“She’s her same old self,” said Terry Lester. “She knows what she did was wrong and she’s willing to accept the responsibility.”

In my opinion, it sounds like a grab for US citizenship. Not only that, if there was good family communication, she wouldn’t have run off to the Middle East in the first place. He sounds like one of those parents who is trying to be a friend rather than a parent.

I received a comment on my very first entry about Katherine Lester. I thought it made such a good point that I decided to share it with you. It’s from a commenter named Mary…

If you know Katherine, please give her this message: I have a god-daughter who began dating a guy who was just like Katherine’s “soul-mate.” He’s handsome, a sweet-talker, said all of the right things, treated her great and said he could not imagine life without her. She kept their relationship a secret from me and married him behind my back, then wrote me a letter & brought it to me, telling me about their marriage. What a betrayal….what a hurt! Though she is not my birth daughter, I love her as if she were and pray for her, always. Several weeks later, the mask came off: He was not Italian (as he had been telling her) he was a Muslim and demanded that she convert, or else. She refused. All Hell broke loose, including physical fights, destruction of her property (her car, clothes and condo) and finally, threats of death. After many bizarre and scary months, she was able to get the marriage annulled. (He refused to have sex with her unless she converted). The threats continued, however, for a year or so after the annulment. Katherine and her parents need to understand Islamic customs and practices. Once she marries this guy, she will no longer have a voice of her own – Islamic women are seen & not heard, and speak only when spoken to. Going from a woman young woman accustomed to personal freedoms to a nameless non-entity will no doubt be Katherine’s undoing, unless she is prepared for that type of sacrifice. She has entered very dangerous waters that may appear placid on the surface, but underneath lurks a turbulence that will have very harmful effects on both her and her family. (I know – I’ve been there with my beautiful god-daughter) and would not wish this experience on ANYONE. The fact that he asked her or allowed her to violate her parents trust, speaks volumes about him. Tell Katherine that true love would never ask nor allow her, to violate the love of her parents. I’m praying for Katherine and her family.

Granted, it’s only one person’s story, but it’s still a real possibility.

Teen Plans to Marry Middle East Man She Met on Myspace.com:

Oh, cut me a break…

GILFORD, Mich. A teenager who flew to the Middle East to be with a man she met on MySpace.com said Friday she intends to marry him.

“I love him very much,” 17-year-old Katherine Lester said of Abdullah Jimzawi, 20, who works in his father’s business delivering goods to West Bank convenience stores.

Lester appeared on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” with her father and stepmother. Jimzawi also spoke with ABC during a taped portion of the segment, describing how the pair “can’t live without each other.”

After hearing what Jimzawi said, Lester began weeping.

“It’s true,” she said. “I love you. That’s all I can say.”

The two have resumed communication online since she returned home.

“Our initial reaction was to isolate her, to lock her up and just keep her safe here in America,” said her father, Terry Lester. “But that’s unrealistic because you can see the love they have for each other.”

Ok, I can honestly say that her father is an idiot.

How many of us that are in our 30s can look back and say we were honestly in love at 17? I can’t. How about you?

New details come in Katherine Lester case:

MID MICHIGAN (WJRT) – (06/22/06)–There were new developments Thursday in the case of Katherine Lester. The Mid-Michigan teen flew halfway around the world two weeks ago to meet with a Palestinian man she met on MySpace.com.

Thursday her mother’s attorney asked a judge to rescind a decision made Monday in which her father was granted temporary custody.

That petition was filed in Tuscola County’s Family Division of Judicial Court Thursday morning.

The judge in the case, Judge W. Wallace Kent, denied the petition, and she will remain with her father until a hearing is scheduled.

In the petition, Lester’s mother’s attorney states numerous reasons of why she should be returned to the custody of her mother.

One of those reasons is an interview ABC12’s Bill Harris had with Lester, her father and stepmother.

Am I just dense? Because I don’t remember any article mentioning her parents were divorced. Not that it matters. But if this situation was a television show, I’d turn it off for being too corny.

Michigan teenager involved in Web romance charged with being a runaway:

She’s not being criminally charged, but this article clarifies some things regarding Katherine Lester…

DETROIT — Authorities have filed a runaway juvenile petition against a Michigan teenager who flew to the Middle East to be with a man she met on the MySpace.com social networking Internet site.

The paperwork was filed Monday in Tuscola County Family Court by the county sheriff and prosecutor against Katherine Lester of Gilford, said Kyle Jaskula, the court administrator.

At a hearing on Monday, Judge W. Wallace Kent Jr. ordered Lester to give up her passport and undergo counseling. He did not rule on the validity of the petition, and further hearings have not been scheduled.

If the judge finds that Lester is a runaway, she could be placed under court supervision until she turns 18. Such supervision usually means she would be monitored by a probation officer and made to undergo counseling, Jaskula said.

The petition is not a criminal offense, Jaskula said Tuesday.

So it’s like being on parole but without having committed any crimes. And for those of you who are whining that it’s not fair, then she should have thought of that before she ran away.

Think about it for a second. If they had succeeded in getting married, do you know what kind of international incident this would have caused? She should be thankful that she was stopped before they did.

And here’s some advice from Ol’ Uncle Trench to the teenagers who are supporting them. 99.999% of the time, the guy or girl you date at 16 will NOT be the person you spend the rest of your life with.

Get over it.

Tuscola County teen’s family trying to keep her home:

Remember when I posted the article that said Katherine Lester’s parents could use the courts to prevent her from running away again? It seems that’s what they’re doing…

TUSCOLA COUNTY (WJRT) – (06/19/06)–The family of a Tuscola County teen is making an attempt to keep her home. Katherine Lester, 16, of Gilford, recently flew to Jordan where United States authorities caught up with her.

Lester was on her way to Israel to meet a man she met on MySpace.com. A runaway petition has been filed in Tuscola County that could put limits on any of her future travel plans.

If granted, the court system will intervene to help the family deal with this Internet and international love story.

The runaway petition was submitted to the probate court and requested by the Akron-Fairgrove junior’s family in the hope of trying to keep her home.

“At this point, of course, the young lady leaving the country in the way that she did, obviously there’s tremendous concerns of her not following the reasonable and really legitimate commands of her parents,” said Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene.

MySpace.com is a social networking Internet site. Her family found out about her plans and FBI agents in Amman, Jordan, persuaded her to return home.

But the family worries she may try this again, and Reene says the probate court could help in trying to keep her in the county.

“The probate court can do a variety of things,” Reene said.

“One thing is counseling. It can provide certain things that the girl has to do at different times to keep track of her and be sure — again, help her — evaluate all the considerations in her life at this point.

While Lester turns 17 on Wednesday, the parents have legal supervision until she turns 18.

“But the family probate court can still intervene up until she turns 18 in an effort to keep her on the right path, provide her with counseling and intervene again to hopefully ensure her safety,” Reene said.

While the probate court judge did not sign the runaway petition this morning, that is expected, which would mean Lester and her family will be back in court soon.

Can you blame them?

Parents may need court to rein in MySpace teen:

I found this to be an interesting article from the Detroit Free Press about what recourse Katherine Lester’s parents could have taken in keeping her from running away again…

Technically, Katherine Lester’s parents can prohibit her from reuniting with a Middle Eastern man she met on an Internet site. She is, after all, 16, a minor, and according to Michigan law, still under the care of her parents.

But realistically, there may be little they can do to keep her home, short of having a court declare the teen incorrigible, legal experts say.

But Lester turns 17 next week. Experts say that should she decide to leave home again, police may not want to look for a runaway at that age, particularly if her parents and authorities know where she is.

“I’ve had cases where kids that age get up and walk out, and yes, the police will take a missing persons report. But will they treat it like a 9-year-old who disappears off the street? No, they won’t,” said Bloomfield Hills attorney Leslie Logan, who specializes in family and probate law.

Attorney Diana Bare of Ortonville said the circumstances surrounding the case might make it more likely that law enforcement and the courts would be aggressive in trying to keep Lester in the country, but ultimately, her parents would have to seek help from the courts.

“I really think the danger in which this girl has put herself makes it a different kind of case,” she said. ” … The fact that she met him on the Internet, that he surreptitiously moved to get her out of the country, without her parents knowing, it just smacks of criminality.”

Michigan law allows children as young as 16 to wed with parental permission.

It also allows 16-year-olds to become what’s known as emancipated minors, freeing them from parental control.

But that takes a court order and there is no such order in the Lester case, at least not yet.

If the Lester family decided to try to control the girl with the court’s help, they would have to ask that a judge find her incorrigible — meaning she refuses to obey her parents — which would allow them to place her in a secure juvenile facility until she turns 18.

The measures may seem a bit drastic, but isn’t what she did drastic at best?

West Bank family upset by Michigan teen’s no-show:

The creepy keeps getting creepier…

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) Relatives of a West Bank man whose 16-year-old American girlfriend flew to the Mideast to marry him after they met on the Internet are distraught that she has returned home, and say they still hope to bring the couple together.

Last week, Katherine Lester slipped out of her mother’s house in Gilford, Mich., and boarded a flight to Israel, where the mother of her prospective groom was waiting to pick her up and take her to Jericho.

But U.S. authorities, who had tracked her down through the popular MySpace.com Web site where she had met 20-year-old Abdullah Jinzawi, intercepted her at an Amman, Jordan, stopover on Friday, seized her passport and forced her to go home. She has been in seclusion since returning late Friday.

The wedding is off at least for now.

Sana Jinzawi, Abdullah’s mother, said her son is heartbroken and insisted the two are in love.

“She was going to sign a marriage contract as soon as she got here,” she said, adding that she told Katherine to “bring a pink dress for the engagement party and a white dress for the wedding.”

“She wanted to convert to Islam and wear the head covering and live with us and adopt our culture,” she said.

Jericho, a dusty backwater of 17,000 people, is a place of relative calm in the strife-torn West Bank, where Israelis and Palestinians frequently clash.

Abdullah Jinzawi, who works in his father’s business, delivering goods to minimarkets, is no longer giving interviews. But in a phone interview with WNEM-TV in Saginaw, Mich., on Saturday, he said he met Katherine on the social networking hub seven months ago, that he was a wealthy businessman and that he wanted to marry her. He said he sent her the money for the flight.

“I love her, and no one can pull me away from her,” he told the station. “She’s only mine, you know, and I do love her a lot.” He said he still plans to marry her, once she is old enough.

Sana Jinzawi, who holds an Israeli identity card, said she traveled to Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv to greet the would-be bride last week.

“When she didn’t arrive it was a sad day for us. All kinds of thoughts went through our heads and we asked the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, and they told us she went back to the U.S. from Jordan,” she said.

The mother said her family was taken aback by all the attention the case has received and is afraid the FBI would become involved. They insist they did not want to hurt the girl and had no idea she acted without her parents’ consent.

Hopefully, when she gets older, Katherine Lester will realize just how big the mistake she almost made was.

Still doesn’t change the fact that this whole story gives me the jibblies.