Mom's persistence, FBI's clout got her daughter back

Betty Abah, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

As 2-year-old Aini Aziz pedaled a plastic scooter around her Denver townhouse one recent afternoon, the carefree toddler gave no hint of her unusual past.

Shortly before her first birthday, Aini's truck-driver father, Ahmad Aziz, abducted her and hit the road. For 14 months, Aini's "home" was the cab of a semi-trailer.

But thanks to her mother's persistence, Metro Volunteer Lawyers and the FBI, Aini is now back with her mother and two siblings in Denver.

For 29-year-old Michelle Porter, Aini's mother, the past 18 months have been an emotional roller coaster.

The ordeal began April 27, 2005, when Aini's father took her from her day-care center in Denver. Porter had recently broken up with him after she said he threatened her with a knife.

He kept the baby in the semi-trailer truck he leased. During those months, Porter saw her daughter only three times - at motels and truck stops - and then, for several months, she did not hear a word.

"It's so hard," Porter told the News in May, "because I don't know who is taking care of her, who she's with. I never thought I'd ever be in a situation like this."

She said she feared her daughter was being subjected to abuse.

Previously, the father had disappeared with the child for a week, Porter said. When they returned, she told the News, "She reeked of cigar smoke. She smelled like she'd been in a truck stop for a week."

Sept. 30, 2005, the date of the last visit, Porter said Aini was limping because her shoes were too small. She had diaper rash, and most disturbing of all, became hysterical when Porter reached out to touch her.

Though she felt traumatized, Porter sought help. She contacted Kathy Tourtelot at Metro Volunteer Lawyers, who introduced her to attorney Jerremy Ramp with the Kelly, Haglund, Garnsey & Kahn law firm.

After he took over the case in November 2005, Ramp and Porter headed for the courts, where they sought an order for Ahmad Aziz to return the baby, to no avail. The runaway father failed to show up at a November hearing; at the next one on Jan. 4, he phoned the court, but refused to disclose his location.

After he failed to appear at the third hearing in February, Judge Gloria Rivera ordered a warrant for his arrest.

Ramp also asked the Denver District Attorney's Office and the FBI to pursue the case. The DA's office filed a felony charge against the father for violating a restraining order Porter had obtained against him.

Meanwhile, Porter went to her job as a bank teller and tried to keep life as normal as possible for her two other children. But her estranged partner's phone threats echoed in her ear.

"I will make sure you never see my daughter, Aini, again, and if anything befalls me, I will pay people to take care of her for me," Porter recalled him saying.

Then, on May 11, FBI Special Agent Nick Vanicelli stepped in and brought the might of that agency with him.

"I tracked (the father) on the phone and let him know that what he did was a federal offense and that a federal warrant of arrest would be ordered against him if he failed to produce the child," Vanicelli said.

Vanicelli also spoke to the father's friends and contacts, urging them to pressure him to return the baby.

It apparently worked.

On June 15, Porter was fast asleep when, at about 2 a.m., her phone rang.

"I went to the bathroom to pick it up," she recalled. "I then saw shadows on my porch. When I opened the door, it was the dad and my daughter."

"What are you doing here?" were, in her bewilderment, the first words she could muster.

"I brought her," she recalled him saying coldly. "Isn't that what you want?"

Even in her most optimistic moments, Porter did not imagine the FBI intervention would work that fast.

"Just like that?" she asked Aziz again.

The former fugitive answered yes, and proceeded to unpack Aini's things from a bag he brought.

But Porter's joy was interrupted.

"Aini did not recognize me," she said.

The little girl, apparently confused with the turn of events, started yelling after her father slid back into the night. Porter broke down in a mixture of joy and exhaustion, then tried to reacquaint the inconsolable child with her old toys.

Porter's efforts eventually paid off and Aini began to warm up.

She had a rash on her legs, but a visit to the doctor revealed no obvious trauma.

The doctor pronounced her "a vibrant 2-year-old," and Aini has shown no more withdrawal symptoms, Porter said.

Monique Kelso, spokesperson for the FBI in Colorado, said her agency's mission is accomplished.

"The FBI is through with the case; we leave the parents to go for civil proceedings," she said.

But for Ramp, there's still work to be done.

"We have basically shifted our focus to make sure she has access to resources and to mitigate the harm done to Aini for being away from her mom for half of her life," he said.

Ramp said Porter's situation tested him professionally.

"This case was incredibly challenging and incredibly frustrating. At some points, we felt that no one was (carrying out) these orders, and that nobody was feeling responsible for finding Aini," he said.

Today, Ramp feels rewarded.

"In the end, I knew that Aini and Michelle would get over this," he said. "She is a wonderful mother. She stayed strong, tough and persistent for 14 months.

"I saw her upset, I saw her tired, I saw her frustrated, but I never saw her close to quitting. She was amazing. They are lots of people who would have stopped fighting," Ramp said.