Couple on trial for kidnap of adopted son 21 years ago

A couple who adopted a child more than 20 years ago appeared in court yesterday charged with kidnapping their son. If convicted, Barry and Judith Smiley could each be jailed for 25 years.

The Smileys adopted Matthew in 1980 from his natural parents when he was three days old, in an arrangement agreed by his natural grandparents. His mother, Debbie Gardner, then 19, signed papers authorising his adoption and the Smileys thought they would hear no more.

But a judge voided the adoption when Matthew was 15 months old, ruling that Ms Gardner had not given her full consent to her son's adoption. By then Matthew had allegedly developed a heart murmur and needed urgent medical attention. His new parents chose to ignore the court order – upheld by two appeal courts – and instead changed their names to Ben and Mary Propp and fled to New Mexico.

"We were needed," Mrs Smiley said, before she appeared in court at Queens, New York. "This young woman needed help and this baby needed us. We feared for his life. We were faced with the possibility of having to turn him over to people who did not have the emotional wherewithal to even provide a prenatal vitamin, much less to care for a child with potentially serious cardiac problems."

The case is certain to draw much attention, especially given an appeal to the court by the couple's adopted son, who is now 23. The couple came to the attention of the court only last year when they confessed, fulfilling an agreement they made with each other two decades ago to tell their son about his natural mother when he reached the age of 21.

"I face the real prospect of losing them," Matthew Propp, a security guard in Albuquerque, told the Albuquerque Journal. "That's a horrible feeling. What makes it worse is having to go every day for the past year and a half wondering if I'm going to lose them and not having an answer to it. The fear is that I could lose everything. My parents are basically my life."

The Smileys admit that they ignored the court in 1982 when they left New York and headed for Albuquerque in New Mexico, among four US states without uniform custody laws and reciprocal custody agreements. Knowing the risk they were taking they placed Matthew in their car and drove away, looking over their shoulders almost constantly.

"We would make sure we weren't being followed," Mr Smiley said. "We thought we'd get caught going through the tollways on the throughways of New York."

As the years passed, their fears eased. Matthew attended Albuquerque high school, wrestling, playing football, baseball and golf. His medical problems did not bother him. But when he reached 21, the Smileys accepted that they had to honour the agreement they made and give him the chance to find his biological parents. "We had our attorney here in New Mexico contact the legal authorities," Mr Smiley said.

Matthew has met his natural mother, who lives in Florida, and his natural father, Anthony Russini, who lives in New York. He said he "gets on fine with them [though] there is no way to form a relationship while this case is over everybody's heads". He added: "The hope is that we can find resolution between everybody and my parents will be here at home."