Joshua Hakken and his wife Sharyn were being held Wednesday at the Hillsborough County Jail, on charges of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Cuba. They were handed over by Cuban authorities to the United States, the Associated Press reported. The two boys, ages 2 and 4, were returned to their maternal grandparents, who have their official custody, authorities said. Joshua Hakken also was charged with false imprisonment. His bond was set at $154,000. No bond information was listed for Sharyn Hakken, news reports said.
The Hakken couple are expected to make their first appearance Thursday in Hillsborough County Court, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
U.S. authorities say Joshua Hakken kidnapped his sons, Cole and Chase, from his mother-in-law's house north of Tampa, Florida, even tying her up as his wife Sharyn picked them up in a truck in an attempt to flee to Cuba.
An CNN reporter spotted the couple and the children beside their boat at the Hemingway Marina in Havana on Tuesday. A man who resembled photographs of Joshua Michael Hakken yelled out "Stop! Stay back!" as the reporter approached, but there was no outward sign of tension or distress between the family members, the AP reported.
The U.S. and Cuba share no extradition agreement, and the island nation is also not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty for governmental cooperation on such cases, the AP noted. Nonetheless, Cuba harbored U.S. fugitives in the past, though most of those cases date back to the 1960s and '70s, when the island became a refuge for members of the Black Panthers and other militant groups. In this case, they agreed to extradite them back to the U.S.
Hakken lost custody of his sons last year after a drug possession arrest in Louisiana and later tried to take the children from a foster home at gunpoint, authorities said. A warrant had been issued for his arrest on two counts of kidnapping; interference with child custody; child neglect; false imprisonment and other charges.
The couple will not face federal charges, said David Couvertier, a spokesman for the FBI in Tampa.
