Thursday Hearing for Bonnie Sweeten

Bonnie Anne Sweeten, the Feasterville woman who fled to Florida with her 9-year-old daughter after faking their abduction, faces a preliminary hearing Thursday in Bucks County.

Sweeten, 38, is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. before District Judge William J. Benz in Richboro. She will face charges of identity theft and making a false report to police.

The twice-married mother of three was catapulted into the national limelight last week after she phoned 911, claiming that she and daughter Julia Rakoczy had been abducted by two men whose car had rear-ended theirs.

An Amber Alert was issued, but Sweeten's report proved false; police checking surveillance videos at Philadelphia International Airport saw the mother and child boarding a plane to Orlando, Fla.

Sweeten was arrested inside a Disney World resort Wednesday and returned to Bucks County after waiving extradition. Arraigned late Friday before Benz, Sweeten was freed after posting $100,000 bond, one-tenth of her $1 million bail.

She was in seclusion with relatives at an unknown Pennsylvania location to avoid reporters camped outside her Saxon Drive home in a prosperous development of 15 houses. Louis R. Busico, Sweeten's attorney, said she would undergo mental-health treatment.

Police have said that Sweeten fled to avoid questions about money missing from a firm where she once worked.

Yesterday, Julia Rakoczy appeared on ABC's Good Morning America, along with her father, Anthony Rakoczy, 40, and sister Paige, 15. The freckle-faced girl told interviewer Diane Sawyer that her trip with Sweeten to Disney World started out as "fun" but turned "scary" after Julia saw her own photograph on TV.

A photo of the child, described by neighbors as a "little spark plug" brimming with energy, was circulated as part of the Amber Alert.

Anthony Rakoczy told Sawyer how Julia was coping with what her mother did and what it meant.

"We talk a little bit about it," Rakoczy said. "She tells us a little bit more, and we kind of process the whole thing. We're kind of taking it slow.

"We're trying to make sure these guys [Julia and Paige] are doing fine. Their mother doing what she did . . . it's just hard."

Rakoczy said he hoped law enforcement officials give his ex-wife a break.

"This whole media hype, it's not the person that she is. I've known her for 20 years," Rakoczy said.

Asked by Sawyer what message she would send Sweeten, Julia said she loved her mother and missed her.

Asked the same question, Paige said that "everybody makes mistakes."

"She just needed some time, obviously, but we're happy that she's OK now and she's home," the teenager said.

Abduction Claim Called False

AOL news- The 9-year-old Pennsylvania girl whose mother is accused of staging an elaborate abduction hoax -- while secretly taking her daughter to Disney World -- spoke out for the first time Monday.

Julia Rakoczy, here in an undated photo, appeared on 'Good Morning America' with her father and older sister. She said her trip to the theme park with her mom was "normal" and "fun."

The case started to make headlines last week after Bonnie Sweeten phoned 911 on May 26 from downtown Philadelphia and told dispatchers that she and her daughter had been carjacked and stuffed in the trunk of a Cadillac near their suburban home. The call prompted a frantic search.
But the investigation took a strange turn when officials discovered inconsistencies in Sweeten's story and when she and her daughter were seen on surveillance video boarding a plane to Florida.

The search for them ended May 27 when they were found at a Disney World hotel.
Sweeten was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of identity theft and false reporting. She was released on $100,000 bail Saturday and is expected to face a formal arraignment in a month or two in Pennsylvania.

In their first interview, Julia, her sister Paige and her father Tony Rakoczy talked to 'Good Morning America' about the ordeal.

"We talk a little bit about it ... [Julia] tells us a little bit more and we kind of process the whole thing," Rakoczy, Sweeten's ex-husband said. "We're kind of taking it slow. We're trying to make sure these guys [Julia and Paige] are doing fine ... their mother doing what she did ... it's just hard."

Rakoczy also asked that authorities cut Sweeten "a little bit of a break."
"This whole media hype, it's not the person that she is," he said. "I've known her for 20 years."
Read more about the case on ABCNews.com.

Woman and Child Abducted From Crash Scene

CSO-- The ex-husband of a missing Bucks County mother appealed this morning for the return of her and their 9-year-old daughter, whose disappearance is being treated as an abduction.

FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver at the same time said, without elaboration, that investigators are following a number of leads in the hunt for Bonnie Sweeten and her daughter Julia Rakoczy.

Anthony Racoczy said that he and Bonnie Sweeten had since maintained a good relationship since they divorced in 2003, and that he knew no reason for anyone to harm her or their daughter.

"I'm still in shock," he said on NBC's Today show. "She's a great mother."

Earlier this morning, Philadelphia police located Sweeten's SUV in Center City.

The discovery came nearly 12 hours after Sweeten called 911 saying she was in the trunk of a car and that she and and Julia had been abducted after an accident in Upper Southampton, Bucks County.

Her daughter, she said was still in the family's Yukon Denali.

A police officer spotted the SUV about 1:30 a.m. today at 15th and Chestnut Streets in Center City, two blocks from the cell phone tower that picked up Sweeten's call, police said. A parking ticket was on the windshied.

Earlier, an Amber Alert was activated for the child.

When Sweeten, 38, called police shortly before 2 p.m. yesterday, she said she was in the trunk of a dark-colored 1990s Cadillac. She said she and her daughter had been abducted by two black males, Klaver, the FBI spokesman, said yesterday.

Sweeten told a 911 operator that her daughter was still in her family vehicle.

The mother reported she and daughter were taken after they were involved in a minor accident with the Cadillac on Street Road in Upper Southampton Township, about a mile north of the city, Klaver said.

Police impounded a black Cadillac with front end damage in Hunting Park last night, but the FBI indicated it was not linked to the investigation.

Julia is described in the Amber Alert as 4 feet, 1 inch tall, 59 pounds, with long brown hair, blue eyes, and a dime-sized birthmark on her forehead.

"She loves the Phillies. She plays softball. She always dances around the house," her father said.

Her mother is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 130 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information about the case was urged to call 911.

Anthony Rakoczy and Sweeten were divorced in Bucks County Court in May 2003. Online court records indicate no ongoing disputes or court actions since the decree was granted.

This morning, Rakoczy said that when he was told of the 911 call, "I was thinking that this is not real, that this is stuff you see on TV." He described Sweeten as very organized, on top of her children's many activities, and as someone with no known enemies.

"I don't understand why anyone would want to keep them," he said. "Just let them go."

Sweeten has since remarried to Richard Sweeten, who operates a landscaping service. According to her Facebook page, she has three daughters, and is a 1989 graduate of Bensalem High School."

Her older daughter, Paige, 15, wrote on her Facebook page: "im asking everyone, to please pray for my mom and sister pray please."

Julia attends Belmont Hills Elementary School in Bensalem. A parent of another child there said that Sweeten had been very active at the school. The parent, who asked not to be identified, said news of the kidnapping broke before a student performance at the school last night.

"The word spread quickly and no one knew what to say," the parent said. "Everyone is shocked. We just pray they come back home safely and we can see them once again in the school she so generously shares her time with." (source)