A “kidnapping” case involving a mom who is a Santa Ana high school teacher and a dad who used to be a Santa Ana school principal but is now a criminal defendant came to a head recently.
Valley High School's Maricela Gonzales and her sons Pablito and R.J. were reportedly reunited Friday, which was a year after they were allegedly abducted by their father James Gonzales.
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The boys were ripped away from their mother as a result of a custody dispute, reports New Santa Ana. Dad is now said to be in Colorado facing multiple criminal counts.
The website includes a looooong message of thanks from Maricela Gonzalez on her Facebook page. It reads, in part:
I can't begin to express the feelings of gratitude, joy, and overall appreciation for everyone involved in the investigation, recovery, and homecoming of my precious sons! Words cannot describe how I feel this morning! I woke up throughout the night making sure I was not dreaming. I could hear my babies peacefully sleeping right by my side. Their scents, their warmth, their presence was the most soothing feeling any mother can experience after a year of anguish. I can't stop looking at them; it still seems so surreal.
It sounds surreal.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.