July 9, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
Shiara Dávila, Assistant PIO
(213) 974-3525

POMONA – The District Attorney’s Office announced today it will seek to extradite a 38-year-old woman accused of taking her 12-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old girl from their foster home in San Dimas earlier this week.

The younger girl was found abandoned in Oklahoma yesterday. The older girl and the defendant were found today in Tennessee. The girls have been placed in protective custody. The defendant, 38-year-old Iris Pineda Zavala (dob 5-8-1970), was arrested.

Zavala is charged in case No. KA083757 with one count each of child stealing, child detention with right to custody, child abuse and unlawfully taking the foster mother’s 1998 Lexus. Bail was recommended at $500,000.

The children and the car disappeared Monday. The younger girl was in the vehicle when she was found yesterday in Oklahoma, authorities said.

The case was filed late yesterday in Pomona Superior Court. Deputy District Attorney Miji Vellakkatel of the Victim Impact Program (VIP) Unit in the Pomona Branch office was assigned to prosecute the case.

sg

Please read our Privacy Policy.

© 1994-2008 Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. All Rights Reserved.