Posted on 07/25/2004 7:19:23 PM PDT by nuconvert
New Mexico Couple Who Kidnapped Boy After Failed Adoption Say They Have No Regrets
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The man Matthew Propp calls his father has returned home after serving two years in prison for kidnapping him as a young boy, but Propp says his family's ordeal will never really end. "I think for everyone involved, there will always be part of this with us," Propp, now 25, told reporters outside Barry and Judith Smiley's Albuquerque home Saturday, a day after Barry Smiley was freed.
The Smileys claimed to have adopted Propp in 1979, when he was 3 days old. They fled New York to New Mexico and lived under the aliases Bennett and Mary Propp after a judge in 1980 ruled the adoption illegal and ordered the baby returned to his biological parents.
The Smileys said that if they had to do it again, they would have done the same thing to stay in Propp's life.
"My body was in prison," Barry Smiley said. "But my heart, my mind and my soul never made it; they were always here. My family is my strength."
Propp's maternal grandfather had arranged for the Smileys to adopt the baby at birth, but the judge ruled that the boy's mother, Deborah Gardner, had not given full consent and his father was never notified.
Questions didn't surface until decades later, when Matthew Propp applied for a job with the New Mexico Corrections Department and concerns about his birth certificate arose.
In 2001, Barry Smiley surrendered to authorities after telling Propp about his past.
The couple said they acted out of love, and Propp has stood by them, asking the judge during the Smileys' 2002 sentencing for leniency.
Barry Smiley was sentenced to two to six years in prison. Judith Smiley, who pleaded guilty to custodial interference, was sentenced to six months behind bars and 4 1/2 years of probation.
Anthony Russini, Propp's biological father, has said he and his family searched for his son for nearly two decades. Gardner did not involve herself in the case against the Smileys.
Propp has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Russinis in recent years, but a July 19 story in the New York Post may have ended the relationship for good, Propp said.
The story quotes the Russinis' attorney, Fred McGovern, as saying: "(Propp) is as dead to the family as if he had passed away, that's how pathetic it is."
The Smileys said they plan to change their names to the aliases they have lived with for 25 years.
"It's the only name Matt has ever known, and we want to keep it, too," Judith Smiley said.
Am I the only one who sees a made-for-TV movie from this?
If this is love, God help us all. Child stealing is not love.
I can't believe there hasn't been one already.
They acted out of pure selfishness.
A life sentence for kidnapping for him and his wife would have been more apropriate.
SO9
A life sentence for kidnapping for him and his wife would have been more apropriate.
ITA. The biological family has a life sentence, after all.
Does it bother you at much as it bothers me that the kidnapper says he has no regrets?
Yeah, some contrition would be a minimal requirement for getting out.
SO9
Am I the only person to find the first paragraph of this news story impossible to comprehend.
so they had money, so they didn't want to waste their time with pregnancy, so they could care less if thousands and thousands of eager parents wait years for a baby...
yes, forget all that....
just do what you feel you want to....
they make me sick...trying to make an evil act look good.....
Yeah, some contrition would be a minimal requirement for getting out.
Guess "love" means never having to say you're sorry.
they make me sick...trying to make an evil act look good.....
They make me sick too. I can't even begin to imagine the pain and damage they inflicted upon the biological family.
Read it again....I had to go back once to figure out the names when I first read it.
They still don't get what they did to the biological parents.
"Anthony Russini, Propp's biological father, has said he and his family searched for his son for nearly two decades"
They still don't get what they did to the biological parents.
Dollars to donuts they don't give a flip about what they did to the biological family. The kidnapper shows no remorse, has no regrets.
I wonder if there is any way the bio family can bring a suit in civil court.
It sounds like they're trying to put it behind them.
Yup. Thanks. I just did that.
I'm STILL not sure what the hell is going on there.
Has to be the weirdest news report I've ever read.
It sounds like they're trying to put it behind them.
WHO?
The biolog. father.
"the Russinis' attorney, Fred McGovern, as saying: "(Propp) is as dead to the family as if he had passed away,"
Sounds to me as if they've given up. Why start a lawsuit that would drag on for years?
Lisa Steinberg
Baby Jessica
Baby Richard
Kimberly Mays and this.
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