Katrina survivors’ caretaker charged in child abduction

AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Michael Ainsworth In this 2006 file photo Rhonda Tavey cleans fingerprints from her front storm door as twins Eric and Erin Alphonse, 1, contribute more fingerprints, at her home in Houston. Tavey, a single mother of two, adopted the Alphonse family into her home after they were forced to flee New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The Harris County District Attorney’s office says Tavey is sought on five counts of kidnapping and an Amber Alert has been issued for the children. Authorities are saying Tavey has abducted the five children and is believed to be in the North Texas area.

HOUSTON—A woman was arrested and charged with kidnapping Thursday after authorities say she was on the run for a month with five children she took in after Hurricane Katrina.

State Child Protective Services was taking custody of the children, ages 3 to 8, and officials said they appeared to be in good health.

Rhonda Tavey, 44, was being taken to the Harris County jail. Her attorney, Dick DeGeurin, said she was arrested by the FBI while on her way to his office.

Tavey had been caring for the children the past two years while their mother, Erica Alphonse, resettled in New Orleans. Tavey has claimed in various media interviews that she took the kids July 11 because, she says, Alphonse abused the children and threatened her. Alphonse has denied those accusations.

“When I confronted her with that, she pulled a knife and threatened to kill me. That’s when I made arrangements to get the kids out,” Tavey said in a story posted Thursday on the Houston Chronicle’s Web site.

Phone calls to a Houston number listed under Alphonse’s name went unanswered on Thursday, and no phone numbers were listed under Alphonse’s name for women her age in New Orleans.

Child Protective Services spokeswoman Estella Olguin said the children will be held by welfare officers until they are able to determine whether it is safe for them to return to their mother. The agency will also investigate Tavey’s claims of abuse.

Assistant District Attorney Jane Waters, chief of the family criminal law division, said authorities had been in contact with Tavey, trying to persuade her to turn the children over.

Houston authorities issued an Amber Alert on Wednesday, and the Harris County prosecutor’s office charged Tavey with five counts of kidnapping.

Later that day, Tavey told newspapers and TV stations that she was in Dallas and that she planned to surrender.

The children had been living in Houston with Tavey under an agreement Tavey reached with Alphonse. Tavey, who has two teenage daughters, was to care for the two boys and three girls while their mother sought to become self-sufficient in New Orleans.

Alphonse, who had called Tavey her family’s “guardian angel” after Katrina’s devastation, said she told Tavey she wanted to move the family back to New Orleans eventually, she told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday night.