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Abduction Tale Adds Twists

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By VALERIE KALFRIN and SAMARA SODOS

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com slsodos@wfla.com

Published: March 28, 2009

Updated: 03/28/2009 12:44 am

TAMPA - Taina Lopez thought the 2-month-old girl in the Amber Alert resembled her newborn.

She read how the woman police sought had persuaded the baby's mother to hand over the child. The story reminded her of her own outlandish encounter with an acquaintance from church weeks earlier.

"It has to be the same lady," Lopez recalled thinking.

On Friday, Plant City police credited Lopez with identifying 43-year-old Amalia Tabata Pereira as the woman who took the infant from a migrant worker and his girlfriend, leading to the baby's safe return.

"She was a key role in our investigation, that's for sure," Plant City police Sgt. David Millich said.

Although glad the infant was unharmed, Lopez said she wonders whether the abduction could have been averted had a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy taken a report from her about her encounter with Pereira in February.

Lopez said she reported the incident three times - twice before Pereira's arrest - and was rebuffed.

"They didn't write down her name or my name or nothing," Lopez said. "I expect the sheriff's department to be here to make people feel safe. As of right now, I feel like they don't want to listen to me."

Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said the deputy, who remembered speaking to Lopez by phone and in person, made no report because no crime was committed.

"She said she knew the woman and they went their separate ways," Carter said.

'Falsified Her Pregnancy'

Pereira, who also is known as Amalia Segui, lives in Bradenton and is married to Pittsburgh Pirates minor-league baseball player Jose Tabata, 20.

She is charged with three felony offenses: false imprisonment, interference with custody and impersonating a public officer. She is being held at Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $750,000.

Tabata read a statement to reporters on Friday, saying Pereira had "falsified her pregnancy and the eventual birth of a baby girl," indicating he thought the kidnapped child was his.

Millich said Pereira has made no statement to detectives about passing the child off as her own. She is not cooperating with police.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office, to which Pereira surrendered Tuesday, referred all questions about the case to Plant City police.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said Lopez phoned her Thursday to relate her experience in light of Pereira's arrest. Bondi would not discuss the matter further, citing the pending prosecution.

Investigators say Pereira approached Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, the mother of the Plant City baby, at the Plant City Health Department on Monday, claiming to be an immigration official.

Pereira asked the mother to hand over the baby, saying she would help keep Sirilo-Francisco and the baby's father from being deported to Mexico. The parents told News Channel 8 they do not have proper documentation to be in the United States.

The couple realized hours later that the woman was a fraud and, with the help of a bilingual neighbor, reported the abduction to Plant City police. An Amber Alert was issued for the child's return.

Lopez called Plant City police in response to the Amber Alert and related her experience, which also began at a health department office.

Based on her information, detectives assembled a lineup of photos of possible suspects that included Pereira's picture, Millich said. The parents of the abducted baby saw Pereira's picture and identified her as the woman who had taken their little girl.

Wild Ride, Wild Story

Unlike the Plant City parents, Lopez is a native of Puerto Rico and a U.S. citizen who first met Pereira through church. "Amy," as she called Pereira, had sent her friendly messages via the online social-networking site MySpace, congratulating Lopez on her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, she said.

Sometime last month, Lopez said, she received a call purporting to be from the Hillsborough County Health Department asking her to take her baby to the Sheldon Road office for a checkup at 11 a.m. Feb. 19.

When Lopez arrived at the office that day, she was told there was no appointment. She now thinks Pereira, whom she encountered outside the building, had phoned her and pretended to be from the office to lure her there.

That day, Pereira asked her for a ride, Lopez said. Once in Lopez's car, Pereira urged her to drive quickly, saying a man in a pickup nearby was going to shoot Lopez, Lopez said.

Lopez said she was confused but began driving. She said Pereira told her: "Your husband owes some money. There's a lot of people at your house that are gonna kill you and your baby. ... Come with me. I promise I'm gonna help you."

Lopez said she pulled over at a gas station and ordered Pereira out of her car.

"It didn't sound like it was real," Lopez said. "I wasn't going nowhere with my baby."

'He Said, She Said'

Lopez called the sheriff's office, but after hearing her story, a deputy told her there had been no crime and there was nothing the agency could do, she said.

Lopez said she was not satisfied and went to the Citrus Park district office, where she happened to speak with the same deputy, who was working the desk that day. She said she was told, "She didn't hurt you. She didn't hurt your baby. Just be careful."

She said she returned to the district office this week to file a report about the earlier incident and again was told there was no crime.

Carter, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said she has no way of knowing what Lopez told the deputy because no report was made.

Had a child reported an odd encounter, deputies would have been more suspicious, Carter said. The fact that Lopez said she wasn't approached by a stranger and that she and her child were unharmed also would have dialed down any urgency.

"It's very difficult for law enforcement because it's 'he said, she said,'" Carter said. "If someone just made a statement and there's no threat to that person, there wouldn't be anything done."

Lopez said she finds that explanation frustrating. "Just because I knew her from before, that's not an excuse. Maybe they could make a couple of phone calls," she said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800. News Channel 8 reporter Samara Sodos can be reached at (813) 314-5379.

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