A Northridge man is being held at a maximum security prison in Peru for allegedly kidnapping his 5-year-old daughter despite having been granted sole custody by a Los Angeles court, his attorney said Monday.
Dustin Kent, 32, of Northridge, who has been in custody for about a month, is being preliminarily held at the Miguel Castro Castro prison in Lima, Peru, pending a two-month investigation into an allegation that he committed aggravated kidnapping there, defense attorney Sandro Monteblanco said by phone from Peru. The registered nurse has been sent to prison pending the outcome of the probe because he is a foreigner and thus considered a flight risk, he said.
Kent’s ex-wife, Rose Mary Ann Kent, fled the United States with her daughter in January of last year amid ongoing custody hearings, the attorney said.
“It’s a situation where a dad that had sole custody of his daughter found her (in Peru) after having been abducted for a year, took his daughter with him and in a flash of a moment, the ex-wife says it’s a kidnapping ring and suddenly he’s been put in prison and is looking at the barrel of a 35-year mandatory sentence for aggravated kidnapping,” Monteblanco said.
Read: Northridge man in Peruvian prison for allegedly kidnapping 5-year-old daughter