A 29-year-old woman who picked up her 8-year-old son from a Carson elementary school despite a court order denying her custody was charged Monday with felony kidnapping and child detention.
Prosecutors planned to ask for bail of $190,000 for Dariia Kostenko, who was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles.
The boy’s foster mother showed up at Towne Avenue Elementary School around 2:40 p.m. last Tuesday and was told that Kostenko had already taken the boy, named Dylan, according to sheriff’s officials and prosecutors.
Kostenko lost custody of her son in May. She was only allowed supervised visitation and a court order forbade her to pick the boy up from school, according to the sheriff’s department.
Security video showed Dylan and Kostenko walking north from the school in a residential area.
Two days later, Kostenko’s boyfriend, identified as 48-year-old Antoine Deshon Eldridge, walked into the Inglewood police station with the child. Kostenko was arrested nearby shortly afterward.
Eldridge was also booked on suspicion of child abduction and being an accessory to kidnapping after the fact, but the District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against him, citing insufficient evidence.
In explaining the higher bail sought for the defendant, prosecutors said Kostenko, who is from Ukraine, has family in New York state and are concerned that she might leave the country.