UPPER SOUTHAMPTON TWP - May 29, 2009 (WPVI) -- The mom in the kidnapping hoax case in due in court today.
Bonnie Sweeten is accused of filing false reports that she and her daughter were kidnapped, and then taking her daughter for a trip to Disney World while using another woman's ID to get there. Sweeten's 9-year-old daughter,
Julia Rakoczy, is safe and sound. Julia's father, Anthony, who is Sweeten's ex-husband, was reunited with his daughter in Orlando on Thursday afternoon at the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
In the meantime, we are learning more details about
Bonnie Sweeten and why she may have fled.
Sweeten was a paralegal and officer manager for a firm that used to have offices in her home town of Feasterville, Pa. She handled paperwork for various lawsuits.
Lydia Demetro said she was told by Sweeten in March that she would be getting a $50,000 settlement for a personal injury lawsuit handled by attorney Debbie Carlitz.
Demetro claims she hit a brick wall with Sweeten while trying to collect her money. "She kept on telling me 'We haven't heard anything, we don't know what's going on," Demetro said.
Demetro says she found out what was going on when she spoke to a friend in law enforcement on Wednesday, just as Sweeten's elaborate kidnapping hoax unravelled.
"I was told she was cashing the checks by the bank, forging them, and depositing them," Demetro said. She also told Action News that Sweeten told her she had numerous financial worries.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that Sweeten stole between $600,000 to $1 million from the law firm and charity headed by Bucks County attorney Debbie Carlitz.
Police visited the head of the Carlitz Foundation in New Hope, Pennsylvania on Wednesday. It bills itself as a charity raising money for children in Burma. But, it is not registered as a charitable non-profit with the state. Lawyer Debbie Carlitz would not talk to Action News except to say she has been talking to police. She also would not say why Sweeten is a former employee.
Action News spoke to Larry Sweeten, Bonnie Sweeten's husband. He says his wife has not contacted him, and he has not been able to get ahold of her. He says he is puzzled the reports that his wife stole as much as a million dollars. "We live an average life. If she was stealing money, as they're saying, I have no idea where it's going," Larry Sweeten said. "We're living, we're making our payments. Nothing extravagant."
Larry Sweeten confirms his wife has had eight miscarriages over the last several years and has undergone hormone treatments for that. Investigators are looking to see if any of that alleged stolen money went to pay for those treatments. The couple now has an 8-month-old daughter.
"I know when you do in vitro you take hormone shots, and that messes with her extremely. She was emotional. When she had the baby, she was extremely attached to the baby," Larry Sweeten said.
"I think she got herself in over her head a little bit and she kind of lost it a little bit," ex-husband Anthony Rakoczy said on "Good Morning America" on Thursday. "I've known this woman a long time and she's always been very together."
I think he is going to find that not only had she bilked money out of her past employer but has misappropriated funds from their personal account. It also would not surprise me if he learns she has put them into further debt behind his back.