Parental kidnap charge tossed against Lynn dad

SALEM – A Superior Court judge has tossed out the parental kidnapping charge against Ernesto L. Gonzalez, the Lynn father charged in connection with the disappearance of his 5-year-old son in 2008.In an 11-page decision handed down Monday in Salem Superior Court, Judge John T. Lu ruled in favor of defense lawyer Christopher Skinner, finding that the indictment for parental kidnapping “cannot stand,” because there is no court order denying Gonzalez custody.”He had lawful authority over 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez,” despite the Commonwealth saying he did not have custody of his son because Probate and Family Court never issued a formal order, according to the ruling.The state argued that because Giovanni was born out of wedlock, legal custody goes solely to the mother, Daisy Colon, and that Gonzalez was never adjudicated to be the boy’s father.But Gonzalez had paid some child support and in June 2008 filed for joint custody and visitation, but the Probate Court never issued an order regarding either.”I am pleased that the judge agreed with my theory. I thought it was an appropriate motion to file,” said Skinner following the decision.A parental kidnapping charge carries up to 30 months in jail, Skinner said.The district attorney’s office said they were still reviewing the decision and will make a statement within 48 hours, according to Steve O’Connell, spokesman for District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett’s office.Gonzalez, 39, a former meat packer, still has to stand trial on the more serious charge of lying to law enforcement authorities in the investigation, which carries up to 10 years in state prison.Giovanni was reported missing on Aug. 17, 2008 by his mother, Daisy, who went to pick up her son at 4 p.m. from a prearranged visit at his father’s apartment at 2 Brightwood Terrace in Lynn and discovered no one was there. After spending several hours attempting to locate her son and Gonzalez, she called police.Authorities eventually entered the apartment through a window and found Gonzalez locked in a bathroom.Gonzalez maintained that he did not have custody of his son that weekend, but witnesses who testified before the grand jury said they saw Gonzalez with Giovanni together.Police searched Lynn for the boy, but have never found him.Gonzalez declined to speak to investigators about his son’s disappearance, but in November 2008 he allegedly made a jailhouse confession claiming he stabbed his son with a kitchen knife because he was misbehaving.He said he then put his son’s body in the bathtub, dismembered it and placed it into six grocery bags and disposed of the body parts in three different Dumpsters within the city, but authorities never found any trace of the boy’s remains.Police found traces of the boy’s blood on a knife, a piece of wood flooring, a cleaning can and the bathroom threshold. Those items were sent to DNA forensic experts at CellMark in Texas for tests.Gonzalez, who remains held at the Middleton Jail, is due back in court on July 13 at which time a trial date could possibly be scheduled on the one remaining charge against him.