Bonnie Sweeten heads to divorce court

Bonnie Sweeten, the Bucks County mother whose bizarre, racially tinged abduction hoax drew national attention, is headed for divorce court.

Her husband, Richard L. "Larry" Sweeten, calling the marriage "irretrievably broken," has filed for divorce and for custody of the couple's 11-month-old daughter.

Bonnie Sweeten, 38, of Feasterville, is awaiting trial on charges of identity theft and filing false reports in the May 26 abduction hoax. She had been scheduled for a formal arraignment tomorrow in Doylestown, but on Monday her attorney waived her right to the hearing and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.

In a frantic-sounding 911 call, Sweeten had claimed that she and Julia Rakoczy, her 9-year-old daughter from her first marriage, had been carjacked and abducted on a busy thoroughfare in Lower Bucks County shortly before 2 p.m. She claimed that two black men had rammed the rear of her vehicle and forced her and Julia into their Cadillac, saying she was calling from the trunk of the car.

Instead, police say, Sweeten had used a former co-worker's drivers license to purchase airline tickets and had flown that afternoon to Walt Disney World. She was apprehended there the next day, but not before authorities, fearing for the child's safety, had issued an Amber Alert that became national tabloid fodder.

Larry Sweeten's divorce complaint, filed late yesterday afternoon in Bucks County Court, makes little mention of the incident. But it does cite her arrest and her potential flight risk as grounds for limiting her contact with their baby to supervised visits.

Bonnie Sweeten, whose attorney has said is undergoing mental health counseling, remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail. She has three daughters from two marriages, and a condition of her bail is that she have no unsupervised contact with any of them.

Inquirer staff writer Larry King can be reached at 215-345-0446, or lking@phillynews.com