Quets to Remain in Jail Until Trial

RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered that a woman accused of kidnapping her twins from their adoptive parents remain in jail until her trial.

Allison Lee Quets, 49, had sought to be released on bond so she could live with a friend in Tucson, Ariz., until her trial. Her attorneys said she would live under house arrest.

"I was glad to be here to try to help her. I had hoped to be taking her home with me, but that's not the case. So, we'll have to wait for another day," said Nancy McLeod, a minister's wife that Quets first befriended when they both lived in Florida.

Authorities said Quets didn't return the 18-month-old twins to their adoptive parents in Apex following a routine weekend visit with them in December. She was arrested a week later in Ottawa, Ontario, and the children were returned to their parents.

Prosecutors claim Quets was obsessed with the twins and stalked the Apex couple for months as she planned the abduction. They portrayed her as deceitful and manipulative and said she was willing to do anything to get what she wanted.

"It seems clear that the defendant remains obsessed with regaining control of the children regardless of the rule of the law -- or the best interests of the children," prosecutors wrote in their motion opposing her release. "She poses both a serious risk of flight and a danger to the community in the persons of the twins and the adoptive parents."

"What comes across is an individual who really can't handle children," U.S. Attorney John Bowler said in the hearing.

Quets' attorneys said she changed her mind about the adoption after a challenging pregnancy and has been fighting to get the children back since they were born.

"They have taken advantage of a woman in a terrible state and used the law to procure children in a way that's not fair, but apparently has been deemed legal so far," McLeod testified during the hearing.

The defense attorneys said Quets was bullied into the adoption and had been held against her will at the adoption attorney's office. They played the tape of a call she made to 911 at the time in which she could be heard saying "they're trying to take my babies."

Prosecutors countered that testimony with a voice message Quets later left with the adoptive parents in which she apologized for her behavior at the lawyer's office and was ready to make the adoption agreement final because she "knew it was for the best."

U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan said it was obvious from Quets' history that she is a flight risk and poses a danger to the community and herself.

"I cannot come up with any set of conditions that is going to prevent (another kidnapping attempt) from happening," Flanagan said,citting Quets' "single-mindedness" in wanting the children back.