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Tuesday, July 29, 1997

Danish woman jailed after sending children to Denmark

CONROE, Texas (AP) - A Danish woman says she'll stay in a Texas jail as long as it takes if it means her children are kept from her ex-husband.

"If that's the only way I can get out of jail is to turn my children over, I'm going to be here for a long time," says Susanne Kite, 37, a Danish national who lives in Splendora, just northeast of Houston.

"I really don't enjoy this being in jail, but I'd rather be in jail knowing the kids are safe than be at home worrying about it."

Ms. Kite has been in jail since May 29 for violating her ex-husband visitation rights to three of the couple's children: Matthew, 7, Michelle, 10, and Lisa, 15.

The three were sent to their maternal grandparents in Vallo, Denmark. A fourth child, high school senior Judith Kite, remains at her mother's home.

Mitchell Kite, 38, the children's father and an electrical worker in Louisville, Ky., says his ex-wife is trying to turn his children against him.

"Everybody's painting her to be this poor, sweet, little thing, and there are plenty of people who will say the contrary," he told the Houston Chronicle in a story published Monday. "I think it's a revenge thing with her. This is the only way she knows she can hurt me."

The now-estranged couple met on a Tunisian beach in 1979. He was a 20-year-old U.S. Navy sailor. She was a 19-year-old on vacation, who pursued him to Virginia where they were married in October 1979.

Kite left the Navy in 1982 and by 1989, the couple had three more children.

Their oldest daughter Judith says she remembers her father regularly beating her mother.

"We never stopped to watch it because it happened all the time," she says.

Mitchell Kite says those stories have been exaggerated by their mother.

"She's been poisoning these kids' minds for three or four years now," he says.

One 1991 attack, however, landed Kite in the Montgomery County Jail on aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault charges. Unable to post $100,000 bond, he stayed in a cell for three months.

Tried only for aggravated assault, Kite received 10 years deferred adjudication, was ordered not to drink, to report monthly to a probation officer and to seek mental help. He was diagnosed manic depressive and put on medication.

The Kites' divorce became final in December 1992.

Kite says he visited the children often during the separation before he had to move to Kentucky in 1992. Contact became sporadic and he blames her for denial of visitation. She says it was lack of interest.

He fell behind in child-support payments. Ms. Kite tried to get her ex-husband's probation revoked. Kite responded by hiring an attorney to protect his visitation rights.

She agreed to lengthen her ex-husband's visitation but at the same time had her father buy airline tickets to get her children to Denmark.

On May 29, she told state District Judge Suzanne Stovall she had sent the two youngest children to Denmark, where they have become celebrities in the Danish media, and refused to bring them back.

The judge held her in contempt and jailed her that day without bond. An appeal had the bond reduced to $25,000. Ms. Kite says she cannot afford that bond, so she remains in the Montgomery County Jail.

The Danish woman also faces two criminal charges of interfering with child custody and another contempt charge for violating the written orders of the divorce decree.

Her attorney says she could legally move to Denmark and her ex-husband probably could not afford to visit very often, but Ms. Kite says she feels like Splendora is her home.

Another option would be to get the custody agreement re-litigated and prove her ex-husband is unfit to see the children. Kite, meanwhile, will counter with evidence that his ex-wife is unfit. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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