Pair face charges after children taken from home
A Lewiston man who allegedly helped a friend hide her children from police – against a court order prohibiting the woman from having contact with the children – faces two felony kidnapping charges.
Nicholas E. Ryset was charged Monday in Lewiston Magistrate Court with two felony counts of second-degree kidnapping, which carry a maximum 25 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
The mother, 32-year-old Jessica N. Martin, was charged last week with two counts of second-degree kidnapping. She is in the Nez Perce County Jail on a $75,000 bond.
Magistrate Gregory K. Kalbfleisch set bond at $50,000 for Ryset following a recommendation from prosecutors, who argued the 38-year-old was a threat to the two children.
Police said Ryset hid two elementary-school-aged children after Martin took them from their Lewiston foster home. The children were reported missing around 5 p.m. Thursday, and a witness who knows the children reported seeing them leave their home with a woman the witness did not recognize. An hour later, Martin, who according to police had her parental rights removed as part of a 2014 child protection proceeding, met with officers and accused the children’s foster parents of sexually abusing her children.
Martin allegedly admitted taking the two siblings from their home to a Lewiston motel and then to Ryset’s Ninth Street residence. When police arrived, Ryset allegedly told officers the children were not there. Police returned for a second visit and found the children in a wooded area behind the apartment complex, according to a police report in court records.
The children told Lewiston police detectives they feared Martin, and that they had not been sexually assaulted in their foster home, police said. The children told detectives Ryset and another man had forced them to hide when the men learned police were looking for them.
Ryset bonded out of the Nez Perce County Jail on Tuesday, according to deputies. The couple’s next court appearance is March 27 in Lewiston.