Katrina survivors' caretaker charged in abduction

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HOUSTON - A woman who took in a family recovering from Hurricane Katrina was arrested and charged with kidnapping Thursday after authorities said she refused to return five children to their mother and went on the run with them for a month.

Officials will investigate the woman's claim that the mother mistreated them, the state department of Child Protective Services said.

The caretaker, Rhonda Tavey, 44, gave up the children voluntarily after negotiations with authorities and was being taken to the Harris County jail in Houston. Her attorney, ####### DeGeurin, said she was arrested by the FBI while on her way to his office.

The children, ages 3 to 8, are in the custody of Child Protective Services and will be held until the agency can determine whether it is safe for them to return to their mother, said spokeswoman Estella Olguin.

Tavey had been caring for the children for about 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 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.

Calls by The Associated Press to a Houston number listed under Alphonse's name went unanswered Thursday, and there was no listing for her in New Orleans.

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 planned to surrender.

A court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning, Tavey's lawyer said. Tavey could face two to 10 years in prison and a fine as high as $10,000 if convicted, the prosecutor's office.

Tavey met the children's mother while Tavey worked as an American Red Cross volunteer during the Katrina aftermath, when thousands of New Orleans residents went to Houston to escape the devastation in their hometown in 2005.

The children had been living in Houston with Tavey under an agreement with Alphonse. Tavey, who also 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, said she told Tavey she eventually wanted to move the family back to New Orleans, she told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday night.

Olguin, of the child welfare agency, said the department is obligated to investigate Tavey's allegations of abuse.

"There has to be some significant evidence that there might be abuse in their home," Olguin said. "We can't just take them because someone thinks they can be a better parent than the other."

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