Woman sentenced for interfering with custody of son

FARMINGTON – A woman has finally been sentenced for taking her son from the Division of Family Services custody and sending him to California.

In October of 2003, Pamela G. Henson, 47, of Farmington, pleaded guilty to interference with custody, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of tampering with a victim/witness.

Henson didn’t show up to her sentencing hearing January 2004 and a warrant was immediately issued for her arrest.

Local authorities did not find her until Aug. 14 of this year when a person who had seen her listed among the Legal Eagle newspaper’s active felony warrants told police where she could be found.

Farmington Police Chief Rick Baker said Henson had been working at a business in Farmington. She was brought to the police department where she was arrested and taken to the county jail.

On Friday, Circuit Court Judge Kenneth W. Pratte sentenced her to four years in prison.

According to court records, Farmington police searched for her son after he disappeared Aug. 12, 2001, from a local church parking lot, where he was to spend the afternoon with a friend.

Police learned later that Henson had picked up her 14-year-old son, who was in foster care, at a convenience store in Farmington. She then arranged for her brother to take the boy to a bus terminal in St. Louis. Her son traveled from St. Louis to Texas and was ultimately found living with her brother in California.

The court reports state Henson told the boy that running away was the only way they could be together. Her son was scheduled to testify at her husband’s federal probation violation hearing that month. She reportedly promised him a car, a satellite television and a Sony PlayStation 2 if he ran away.