WOODLAND — The sentencing hearing in a high-profile Yolo County child abduction case ended Tuesday with both the prosecution and the defense leaving the courtroom dissatisfied.
For Dennis Riordan, the newly retained lawyer for defendant Nan-Hui Jo, it was Yolo Superior Court David Rosenberg’s rejection of a motion for a new trial, which argued that jurors in Jo’s February trial were improperly instructed on abduction law, and a juror wrongly dismissed, before the panel rendered its guilty verdict.
Jo, a Korean immigrant, was convicted of felony child abduction after taking her young daughter to South Korea for nearly five years without the permission of the child’s father, former Davis resident Jesse Charlton. The girl, Hwi, is now 6.
Prosecuting attorney Steve Mount’s disagreement with the sentencing came when Rosenberg reduced that felony to a misdemeanor, resulting in Jo’s anticipated release from the Yolo County Jail followed by three years of informal probation, though she was expected to be referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement upon being freed.
“It’s the judge’s call,” Mount said as he walked out of the courthouse, where dozens of Jo’s supporters who had packed Rosenberg’s courtroom held a rally on the front steps. Mount had sought a steeper sentence of county prison time followed by mandatory supervised release, describing Hwi’s abduction as “one of the most severe” due to its length and international scope.
Riordan, meanwhile, said he plans to pursue an appeal of Jo’s conviction, calling Rosenberg “dead wrong on the law in this case.”
“This conviction is illegal and it will be reversed,” the San Francisco-based attorney told reporters outside the courthouse. Jo now faces possible immigration proceedings, “but she will be freed of the label of felon, and obviously that will be a very good thing for her daughter.”
In his ruling, Rosenberg noted that Jo unilaterally chose to deprive Charlton of his parental rights in violation of California law.
“Ms. Jo took the law into her own hands,” concealing the child from her father for five years while making no effort to contact authorities and legalize her actions, Rosenberg said.
But he also said it was in the “interest of justice” to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor — something Riordan had proposed in a conditional sentencing memorandum — which Rosenberg did while urging that Jo and Charlton work together in family court, “keeping in mind at all times the best interest of the child.”
The pair are expected to appear in Sacramento County family court on May 11, where attorneys plan to bring in a therapist and mediator “to help these two deal with the emotional issues that they have,” said John E.B. Myers, a McGeorge law school professor who is representing Jo pro bono in the custody matter.
Myers said Jo has exchanged letters and pictures with her daughter, but they have not seen one another since she’s been incarcerated.
The Yolo County abduction case has received a worldwide following from supporters who called attention to Jo’s volatile relationship with Charlton, including an incident described at trial in which Charlton grabbed Jo by the throat and threw her against a wall.
While no one disputed that incident, prosecutors said the law requires custody issues to be determined in family law court. Jo, who left the United States with her daughter in 2009, was detained last year in Hawaii as she attempted to re-enter the country.
Jo’s first trial in December before Judge Paul Richardson ended with a hung jury, resulting in a retrial in Rosenberg’s courtroom.
A juror in the retrial was dismissed on the second day of deliberations when the woman, a non-practicing attorney from Davis, told Rosenberg she could not, based upon the law provided, morally make a decision in the case. She was replaced with an alternate, and the jury convicted Jo the following day.
Jo had been scheduled for sentencing on April 1, but that hearing was postponed until Tuesday after Riordan, a noted appellate attorney, replaced Jo’s public defender and announced the bid for a new trial.
Also in court Tuesday was Charlton, a veteran of the Iraq war who has suffered from lingering injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, who described in a victim impact statement his struggles to build a relationship with his daughter, who was told by Jo she didn’t have a father.
“She had an intense desire to reject me and the lie I represented to her,” Charlton said of Hwi, who he said remains confused about her situation and twice has lashed out at him physically. “Even at this point, I am not sure if Ms. Jo understands the consequence of what she has done.
“I know that she doesn’t want to hurt Hwi, and yet she has — by tearing Hwi away everyone who loves her, including herself,” Charlton said before walking out of the courtroom.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene