Woman tells CBS New York she made an "unforgivable mistake" before 5-year-old daughter was kidnapped in Queens
NEW YORK -- Franz Vila, a 75-year-old man from Queens charged with kidnapping and sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl, pleaded not guilty on Thursday night and his bail was set at $275,000 cash.
The little girl's mother told CBS New York she made an "unforgivable mistake" by trusting Vila after police said she handed her daughter over to him on Wednesday.
"I thought maybe he was a good person but then, after knowing this," she said, "really, really angry because I trust him."
CBS New York is not identifying the woman to protect her daughter's identity.
The woman said Vila took her and her daughter to Travers Park on different occasions, but she only knew him for a few months.
On Wednesday, Vila bumped into them at a supermarket.
"She wanted to go to the park and I said no to her, and she started crying," she said. "He said, 'Oh can I take her for a little while? Can I take her?' So I was, at that moment I was a little, maybe out of my mind, and then he took her."
She said Vila was supposed to be in the park with her daughter while she finished shopping and they were to quickly meet up after.
The woman said she went to the park within minutes, but Vila and her daughter were nowhere to be found.
After a large police search, the girl was found and Vila was arrested. Bystanders who saw news reports told police the girl was with a man at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway station.
Vila and the girl had allegedly just returned from his apartment on the Upper East Side.
The girl's mother faced a criminal charge until the Queens District Attorney's Office reversed course and declined to prosecute her.
"I am not a bad person," she said. "This is the only time that I left her by herself ... I'm really sorry because I love her so much. I always take care of her."
The girl is now in her father's custody.
For now, the woman's visits with her daughter must be strictly supervised, she said.
