ST. THOMAS — United States Marshal James E. Clark for the District of the U.S. Virgin Islands announced Monday the arrest of Barbara Francis for false imprisonment of a child under age 13. According to the release, Ms. Francis was taken into custody without incident on St. Thomas.
The child was recovered and will be in the protective care of Virgin Islands Police Department until family from Florida arrives. The case originated in Orange County Florida, which requested assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) and the VIPD.
“I truly want to thank our territorial partners for the professional relationship and mutual aid we provide to one another on a daily basis,” said Chief Deputy US Marshal Jeremy Honaker. “Over the past few weeks our US deputy marshals have assisted the VIPD with the recovery of a runaway juvenile, assisted the VI Attorney General’s Office with ensuring 30 registered sex offenders are complying with their registration requirements and today they assisted us in the apprehension of a fugitive and recover of a child. We will continue to work together to ensure our kids and our communities remain safe.”
No further details about the false imprisonment was provided in the release. However, generally false imprisonment of a minor does not occur if the defendant is related to the child and if they acted with the consent of the child’s parents. False imprisonment of a minor is a serious crime and is usually punished more severely than false imprisonment of an adult. This is due to concerns over kidnapping and detaining children without parental consent.
According to the release, the USMS is the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency. The Marshal Service is the federal government’s primary agency for conducting fugitive investigations and has a critical role in implementing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) violent crime reduction strategy.
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