Mesquite Girl

A 12-year-old girl who was abducted by her stepfather described to investigators an inappropriate relationship with him that dated to the third grade, according to Child Protective Services documents outlining the agency’s case seeking custody.

The girl said James Hudachek started “touching” her in the third grade and they began a sexual relationship in the sixth grade, according to the report released Friday.

Meanwhile, at a Friday press conference, Angela Hudachek and her attorney vowed to regain custody of the girl and her twin 9-year-old half brothers. They argued that the mother had no knowledge of sustained sexual abuse and James Hudachek’s suicide meant he was no longer a threat.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that my client did not know what was going on and did not know this man would run away with this child,” attorney Charles Rich said. “We’re asking the judge to bring the children back. It’s time the state started assisting them instead of hurting them.”

James Hudachek abducted his stepdaughter Sept. 3 while his wife was out of town and left their 9-year-old sons home alone. The girl’s mother reported her missing the following morning and authorities issued an Amber alert three days later.

According to a letter sent by the girl to her family, Hudachek traveled with her through parts of the Northeast on what she thought were vacation trips to Times Square, the Atlantic Ocean and a Six Flags park.

The girl told CPS her stepfather had been planning “the trip” since June and that she wanted to go because “I loved him, he was easy to get along with, and would be together forever (sic).”

Even as the search for Hudachek and the child continued, CPS announced its intent to take custody of her and her brothers. The agency contends Angela Hudachek knew her 29-year-old husband had been molesting her daughter but did nothing to stop the abuse.

Angela Hudachek has said she was aware of one incident when the girl was 6 and she complained that her vaginal area hurt after her stepfather had touched her. At the time, Hudachek believed her husband’s contention that they were just playing rough.

The girl's name had been published in earlier accounts to help officials search for her, but the Dallas Web sites generally do not identify possible victims of sexual assault.

The search for the missing pair ended Wednesday after Hudachek called his wife and told her she had three hours to get to Oklahoma City to retrieve her daughter. He killed himself as officers approached his motel room and the girl came out unharmed.

Meanwhile, CPS took custody of the girl and the twins. Angela Hudachek was allowed to see her daughter for about an hour Thursday at a Dallas-area hospital.

“It was emotional. We spent a lot of time holding each other. They wouldn’t let me talk to her about nothing,” Hudachek said. “She laid down and cried on my shoulder. She said she’s ready to come home.”

The report notes that Angela Hudachek was aware that her husband treated her daughter differently from their other children – buying her gifts, taking her for manicures, supervising her during cheerleading practice – and also in obsessive ways – reading her diary and eavesdropping on telephone conversations.

At the news conference and in the court documents, Hudachek acknowledges calling her husband “a pedophile” when they argued.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Hudachek said. “Anybody can look back and see different things when all is said and done. I never assumed anything sexual or anything like that.”

CPS, however, contends Hudachek had “direct knowledge” of sexual abuse, according to its order seeking temporary custody. Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon will hear the case for all three children Sept. 23.

“This mom said all along that (the girl) said he touched her and hurt her. Now we have (the girl) saying it started back in the third grade. Nothing was ever done to protect her. All along the way there were warning signs,” Gonzales said.

The girl’s birth father, Sanford Hicks of Oklahoma, has said he intends to seek custody of his daughter. He and Angela Hudachek split when the girl was a toddler.

“He doesn’t have anything to do with her at all,” Hudachek said. “I’ve had to make him pay child support and even those have been few and far between.”

An attorney for Angela Hudachek blasted Child Protective Services on Friday for taking custody of the Mesquite woman's 12-year-old daughter, who was found safe this week after being abducted by her stepfather.

In court documents, CPS caseworkers report that the girl endured years of sexual molestation that they said Mrs. Hudachek knew about but did nothing to prevent. They say the girl's twin 9-year-old brothers, who also were taken into custody, were and continue to be in danger.

Attorney Charles Rich said that James Hudachek's death on Wednesday in an Oklahoma City motel room effectively ended any threat to the children. After a 12-day odyssey to the Northeast with his stepdaughter, Mr. Hudachek, a 29-year-old part-time pastor and former Marine, put a gun to his head and killed himself.

Not returning the children to their mother at this point is an "absolute travesty," Mr. Rich said. "There's no evidence that my client knew of an improper relationship between [the girl] and her stepfather. My client has never seen sexual abuse."

"We're questioning her ability to protect her children and to make good decisions," she said. "With the twins, if at some point it's proven that she can, then the court will likely return them to her. But with ... [the girl], they'll have a much tougher battle on their hands. The ultimate decision is up to the judge."

Custody hearing

A custody hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in Dallas. The girl's birth father, who lives in Oklahoma and has previous arrests for spousal abuse, has said he plans to ask the court for custody.

The girl's name had been published in earlier accounts to help officials search for her, but The Dallas Morning News generally does not identify possible victims of sexual assault.

Mesquite police said that there are no current plans to seek charges against Mrs. Hudachek.

"We are working with CPS and the district attorney's office and are investigating all information that is coming out in relation to this case," police Sgt. Shannon Greenhaw said. "If we determine that criminal charges should be filed, then we will take appropriate action."

It is Class A misdemeanor in Texas to fail to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child. If convicted, the Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail.

Court documents filed Thursday state that the girl has endured systematic abuse for years.

Caseworkers report that the girl told them that she was in third grade when she first told her mother that Mr. Hudachek had touched her inappropriately. The girl also said that her mother once walked in on Mr. Hudachek as he was touching the girl on the thigh and elsewhere but was only briefly angry with him.

Eventually, the molestation escalated, the girl told caseworkers, adding that her stepfather had been having intercourse with her for at least a year before he abducted her Sept. 3.

She said that her stepfather had planned the trip for about three months, caseworkers said. She said she went because "I loved him," the documents state. "He was easy to get along with, and [we] would be together forever."

Accusations

Mr. Rich accused CPS of "interrogating" the girl and coercing her to implicate her mother in order to "cover up their absolute screw-up."

"Forensic interviews are always videotaped, and if there's a question about how they were conducted, then the judge can look at them," she said. "They were very sensitive with her. She was very forthcoming."

Mrs. Hudachek on Friday gave conflicting accounts of her knowledge of the abuse described in detail by her daughter. The woman denied that she ever caught her husband molesting the girl. She said that the only inkling she had that there was something awry was when her daughter told her Mr. Hudachek had touched her inappropriately when she was 6. Mrs. Hudachek initially dismissed the incident, but not completely, she said Friday.

"It was always in the back of my mind," she said. Those lingering doubts prompted her to call Mr. Hudachek a pedophile during the couple's heated arguments.

But on Friday she played down the significance of the label. "I called him everything," she said.

"I just thought it was Daddy's love for his little girl," she said. "I never assumed anything sexual or anything like that."

Mrs. Hudachek said that her CPS-monitored meeting with her daughter on Thursday was "very emotional."

"She cried on my shoulder," she said. "She's just real tired. I think she needs her mama. ... [The girl] knows that I didn't intentionally put her in harm's way."

The girl met her foster mother Friday, and "they seemed to get along really well," Ms. Gonzales said. Arrangements are being made to move the girl to a Dallas school in coming days.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Hudachek said Friday that she would not claim her husband's body, which is in an Oklahoma City morgue. She said she was leaving it up to his parents to make arrangements.

Jami Hicks, the 12-year-old Mesquite girl who authorities think was abducted by her stepfather, mailed a letter to her family saying she's on vacation "touring the world," relatives said.

"She thinks they are on a family vacation," said Angela Hudachek, Jami's mother, who reported her daughter missing to Mesquite authorities Sept. 4. Mrs. Hudachek said the letter arrived Saturday, addressed to Jami's twin 9-year-old brothers and postmarked Thursday from Pennsylvania.

Authorities think James Hudachek, 28, abducted his stepdaughter the evening of Sept. 3 after buying a car and a .45-caliber pistol and withdrawing money from his personal and church bank accounts.

The girl's family says they found a letter from Mr. Hudachek to Jami in which he professes his love for the the 12-year-old.

Also Online

Mesquite police alert: crimeweb.net/details. asp?id=5030

Angela Hudachek's Web site on the search for her daughter: findjami.com

Mr. Hudachek, a telephone line repairman, is also the pastor of The Door of Life Assembly of YHWH, a small Mesquite congregation that worships at a city recreation center.

In Jami's letter to her brothers, she chronicles a trip with stops in New York City and amusement parks, including Busch Gardens in Virginia, a Six Flags and the Hershey park in Pennsylvania.

"She says, 'I've eaten out every night' and 'I've rode in several taxis,' " Mrs. Hudachek told WFAA-TV (Channel 8). "I think he's using this time to coax her into building that relationship with her. She has no idea she's been kidnapped, and she has no idea her daddy has a gun or any idea her daddy has no intention of ever bringing her home."

"We're looking into its authenticity," Sgt. Shannon Greenhaw said. She said police had no immediate reason to doubt its authenticity.

According to a search warrant affidavit released Monday by Mesquite police, Mrs. Hudachek discovered clothing tags in the master bedroom shortly after finding her daughter and husband missing.

"The tags appeared to be for some lingerie. ... Mrs. Hudachek stated that the lingerie was too small for her or her [18-year-old daughter]," the affidavit states.

Mesquite police still have an active Amber Alert out on Jami. Alerts issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which included a 200-mile radius around the Dallas area, and an alert in South Carolina, issued last weekend after a sighting, have expired.

Meanwhile, Jami's birth father in Oklahoma said Monday that he wants to ask a Dallas County judge for custody of Jami.

Child Protective Services asked a judge Friday for custody of Jami and her twin brothers.

In the next two weeks, a juvenile court judge is expected to hold a hearing to decide whether Mrs. Hudachek should be allowed to keep custody of Jami and her brothers.

CPS officials said prior inapprioriate touching by Mr. Hudacheck and Mrs. Hudachek's failure to recognize it as possible child abuse and report it put the children at risk.

"I'm not an unfit mother," Mrs. Hudachek said Monday. "I'm the best mother they could ever have or possibly even want or desire to have. ... I am so frustrated with that system that has supposedly been out there to help kids. It's been nothing but a thorn in my side."

Mr. Hicks said he's seen his daughter only a few times since he and her mother broke off their relationship about a decade ago.

Mr. Hicks said that his criminal history, which includes several domestic violence arrests after Jami's mother was beaten, shouldn't color the court's view of him as a parent.

"I could understand if it was drugs or molestation. But something that went on when I was younger, I hadn't [been arrested for] anything in years."

Rebecca Lopez of WFAA TV (Channel 8) and Kimberly Durnan and April Kinser of DallasNews.com contributed to this report.