A criminal case involving a man who kidnapped his two sons nearly 16 years ago and hid them from their mother for four years in Latin America ended Thursday with a guilty plea to a misdemeanor in Lake County Circuit Court.
Curt Montalbano, 53, of Woodstock pleaded guilty to attempted child abduction. Assistant State’s Atty. Matthew Chancey said Montalbano’s sons, now 23 and 25, didn’t want him convicted of a felony.
Montalbano was originally charged with two counts of child abduction.
Judge Fred Foreman released Montalbano on conditional discharge for 18 months, fined him $500 and ordered him to perform 80 hours of public service. Montalbano, who said he is a welder, left the courthouse in tears.
Foreman appeared reluctant at first to allow the felony charges against Montalbano to be reduced to a misdemeanor, but he noted that the case has gone on for years and it’s what Montalbano’s sons wanted.
Montalbano was arrested about a year ago after he surrendered to authorities. He flew to Chicago from Argentina and had been living abroad since 1991. Authorities said Montalbano returned to the Chicago area because he wanted to see his ailing father in Arlington Heights.
When Montalbano and his wife, Carolyn, were divorced in Lake County Circuit Court, she was given sole custody of their sons, but he was allowed weekend visitation, authorities said. On Jan. 25, 1991, three days after the divorce was granted, Montalbano boarded a train in Arlington Heights with his sons and vanished. Carolyn Montalbano hired a private detective, but no one could find the boys.
Montalbano and his sons lived in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, where they worked on a coffee plantation. After a peasant uprising, Montalbano and his sons were forced to leave and lived briefly in Guatemala and Honduras.
Montalbano called his brother on Christmas Eve 1994 and said he needed money. In January 1995, Carolyn Montalbano arranged to fly to Honduras to meet her sons and bring them home. She said at the time that she agreed not to press charges against her former husband.
Chancey said Montalbano was charged in Lake County Circuit Court because he removed his sons from the jurisdiction of the court that granted the custody arrangements.
