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Samuel Montes, 22, is being held in jail on $250,000 bond and a hold for immigration in the disappearance of daughter Angelina Montes.
Montes was also sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court for not helping the Department of Children and Families find her.
Earlier this week, Angelina, who is listed as missing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, was seen playing at a park in Miami Beach in front of an NBC 6 Miami news crew.
Montes’ attorney, Michael Grieco, said the paternal grandparents have been taking care of the child, and that she is not in any danger and has not been harmed.
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A missing persons report was filed on March 7, 2011 for the girl. The charge against Montes was filed eight days later, and he was arrested recently in Pensacola on a warrant.
According to the warrant for Montes’ arrest, Montes twice told a Department of Children and Families investigator that he would deliver the daughter to the agency, but both times failed to do so, a Miami-Dade Police detective wrote.
“Without any assurances in writing from DCF that the child is not going to be taken from their care, especially with the fear that the child could be taken back to Venezuela, they are not going to do that,” Grieco said about handing the child over.
Grieco said the issue stems from a clash of cultures. He said both parents are of Gypsy descent.
“These families, within the Gypsy community, have a different way of doing things, and they are scared, and there’s a cultural divide there that I am trying to act almost as the middleman between the government and the state of Florida and the families,” Grieco said.
The girl’s mother, Vanessa Churon, is in Venezuela. In a phone interview from there Tuesday night, she said she had been cut off from communication with her daughter, but was relieved that Angelina appears OK.
Montes and Churon lived in southwest Miami-Dade County with their young daughter until Churon left in February 2011 due to physical and emotional abuse from Montes, police said. But though Churon has custody of the daughter, Montes’ mother prevented her from taking her with her, Miami-Dade Police said.
Churon said Tuesday that after Montes and his parents refused to give her up, she left the country by herself pregnant with his second child.
DCF said Tuesday that the investigation continues.
“This is a very serious matter, there is an open DCF investigation,” said Lissette Valdes Valle, a DCF spokeswoman. “It is imperative that anyone who has information of the whereabouts of this child needs to report this information to the police immediately so DCF can investigate and make sure the child is safe.”