DA to appeal dismissal of parental kidnapping charge vs. Gonzalez

SALEM – Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett is expected to file his appeal in two weeks in the Ernesto L. Gonzalez case as a result of a Superior Court judge?s decision to dismiss a parental kidnapping charge.Assistant District Attorney Jean M. Curran told Salem Superior Court Judge Robert A. Cornetta that prosecutors will be filing their interlocutory appeal to the higher court in two weeks.A decision handed down by Judge John T. Lu two months ago in favor of the defense said Gonzalez cannot be charged with parental kidnapping because there was no court order denying him custody of his son,Giovanni disappeared in August 2008 after a visit with his father at his 2 Brightwood Terrace apartment in Lynn.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 Colon, who went to pick up her son at 4 p.m., from a prearranged visit at his father?s apartment on Brightwood Terrace, but no one was there.After attempting several hours trying to locate her son and Gonzalez, she called police.Authorities eventually entered the apartment through a window and found Gonzalez locked in a bathroom.He maintained that he did not have custody of his son that weekend, but witnesses who testified before a grand jury said they saw him with his son that weekend.Police searched Lynn for the boy, but have never found him.Gonzalez, who has pleaded not guilty, remains held at the Middleton Jail.