Woman Cleared Of Child Kidnap Charges

The Shelley woman twice accused of kidnapping a Fort Hall toddler in a Blackfoot park has been cleared of all charges.

Cheryl Hesse, 35, a former volunteer Bonneville County search and rescue worker, had maintained for the past year that she was only trying to protect the child she thought was in danger.

Magistrate Jerry Meyers, the third magistrate to handle the case, said that prosecutors failed to provide evidence justifying Hesse be forced to stand trial. Deputy Bingham County Prosecutor Carter Mackley may have shown that Hesse put 3-year-old Valentina Batt in her car but he provided nothing to indicate she intended to kidnap the child.

“I would handle the situation differently, but I would still help the child,” Hesse said following Meyers’ ruling on Thursday.

It was the second time a magistrate refused to force Hesse to stand trial on the allegations that she kidnapped the girl as she played alone in the city park while her mother, grandmother and aunt shopped across the street.

The child was missing for about half an hour when Hesse contacted the Sheriff’s Department on a police radio and said she had found a child along Interstate 15 about three miles north of Blackfoot. She was arrested on the kidnapping charge 16 days later.

Defense attorney Scott Hansen conceded that Hesse took the child and lied to police. But he said she never demanded ransom or promoted herself as a hero to the media for allegedly rescuing the child. She neither harmed the child nor kept her for a long time, he said.

“It just doesn’t add up to the crime of kidnapping,” Hansen said. “It shows that she’s maybe too aggressive, didn’t use good judgment and tries too hard, but it doesn’t prove with substantial evidence her motive.”

Mackley said he had no plans to pursue the case further.

“Two judges have spoken,” he said. “Obviously we disagree or we wouldn’t have filed the charges, but we’ll stand by their decision.”