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Roach Appears Before Justice of the Peace
Aired August 15, 2002 - 10:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to show you these live pictures from Abilene. This is Paula Lynn Roach, the suspect in the kidnapping in Abilene, Texas.
Let's listen to the judge.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right to remain silent, the right not to make a statement or take a polygraph examination. Any statement, oral or written, can be used against. You have right to retain counsel, a right to have attorney present during interviews with peace officers, or attorneys representing the state, and the right to make that interview at any time. You have a right to request the appointment of counsel if you are indigent, can not afford counsel.
That procedure consists you, the accused person, completing an affidavit of images, signing and swearing to truthfulness of the statements contained in that affidavit.
You also have a right to have a reasonable time and opportunity to consult with counsel, if you desire, and examining trial in felony case, and be admitted to bail as allowed by law.
Your charged on a warrant in complaint out of Taylor County for aggravated kidnapping. You bond is $200,000.
No, ma'am, that is the charge. That will be up to district attorney's office.
Do you understand your rights?
PAULA LYNN ROACH: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are also charged on two warrants, traffic warrants. One is a warrant for no liability insurance. The bond is $296. The other one is a fail to appear, $255, issued out of knocks county by Judge Imogene (ph) Young. Do you understand that.
ROACH: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. If you want to apply for an attorney, they have a form in county jail you can fill out, and that will be sent to the district court.
OK, all right. KAGAN: A quick appearance there by Paula Roach, a 24-year-old who has now been charged with the kidnapping of Nancy Crystal Chavez, a kidnapping story that of course if you've been with us, you know came to a happy ending. This young woman, though, now facing some very serious charges, including aggravated kidnapping, as she makes her first appearance before a judge in this case.
Also sounds like there was previous traffic violations that had caught up with her.
Let's bring in our Ed Lavendera, who is following this story from Abilene, Texas.
Ed, it sounds like the judge put also a pretty high bail bond on her, if she wants to get out of jail while charges are pending.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it sounds like that would be rather tough. Every indication I've gotten from authorities here in Abilene -- you can see her now exiting the courtroom just across the street there, should happen any moment, as news media was gathered over there.
Every indication I got from authorities here that is still trying to piece together details of family history and family relationships, getting more information as to the motive, and kind of just the background of this family, what would lead someone, police believe, committed this crime, to do this. So a lot of that work stills continue as they continue to speak with, family members, and her mother, who was in the car with her, apparently, police say, in Quanah, Texas when she pulled over yesterday afternoon.
And, police say, or that they were told that -- the mother and stepfather believed the story she had been telling hem that she had the baby the day before, but police are very suspicious of the story that her own family is telling them as well. So they're weeding through a lot of those stories and information that is coming out right now.
KAGAN: Quick question here, Ed. They are walking her back to jail, I guess, that's what they're doing there.
LAVANDERA: Yes, that's exactly what they are doing now. It was kind of a small courthouse here, and they were just pulled into the parking lot just before the court proceedings started, and basically that court is just on other side of that door that you might have seen Paula Lynn Roach walk out of, and now she is jumping backs in the car returning for that quick ride back to county jail here in Abilene, where she will remain in jail for the time being.
KAGAN: I think a lot people heard about the original kidnapping and saw the pictures of the happy reunion, but help us fill in the holes a little bit about allegedly what happened from the time that that little baby was snatched from a Wal-Mart parking to the time that police came in contact with Paula Roach in is it Quanah, Texas?
LAVANDERA: Quanah, yes, about 125 miles north-northeast of Abilene, closer to the Texas panhandle. So the -- of course, the anxiety of the 24 hours really that it took to get Nancy Chavez back here to Abilene. The tip came in 9:00 yesterday morning to authorities that they suspected that Paula Lynn Roach and the baby were in the Quanah area. The tip came in, police say, from someone, an anonymous source up in Quanah.
And they credit the Amber Alert system, which we talked about so much in the last couple weeks, regarding all of these different abduction cases, but they do credit that in helping spread the word, as to this case. In fact, we are told by one police officer was that she had been telling the story that she -- that Paula Lynn Roach had been telling the story she had this baby, but people in Quanah apparently knew Paula Lynn Roach told me when they heard the news out of Abilene media coverage of all this, and all of the bulletins put out by police, the minute they saw Paula Lynn Roach show up in town with a baby, that is what led a lot of people to become suspicious, and police believe that is what triggered and led someone to place the call to police that led them to Paula Lynn Roach in Quanah, Texas.
KAGAN: And yet again, we are seeing common theme of alert citizens taking action and helping to bring a happy ending to one of these abduction cases.
Ed Lavandera, in Abilene, Texas, thank you so much.
LAVANDERA: You got it.
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