BY BECKY CRISSMAN
becky.crissman@gaflnews.com
VIENNA — A Wilcox County woman has been released on bond after allegedly removing her children from a local school without the permission of their legal guardian last week.
Joanie Lynn Wilson faces charges of criminal trespass, disrupting public school and interference with custody after reportedly taking her three children from the bus ramp at Dooly County Elementary/Middle School. The children, ages 8, 11, and 12 had been previously placed in the custody of their father Nicholas Cochran Sr.
Apparently Wilson waited on the bus ramp for the children to arrive at school. Witnesses said that the monitor on the bus ramp believed Wilson to be a high school student waiting on a bus.
When the children arrived at the school, Wilson called them over and proceeded with them to a truck that belonged to her brother-in-law. She had borrowed the truck under the pretense of taking the children to the dentist.
A relative on the bus witnessed the incident and called her mother from a cell phone. Law enforcement officials responded to the scene and a BOLO (Be On Look Out) was released to surrounding counties.
Later in the day, the three children were located at a Wilcox County address after Wilson contacted Wilcox Department of Family and Children Services and Sheriff’s Department. When deputies arrived on the scene, Wilson had already fled the area.
The children were returned to their father, and Wilson was later arrested and transported to the Dooly County Detention Center. She was released on a $1,500 bond set by Judge Lonny Anderson with the Dooly County Magistrate Court.
Wilson could be arraigned sometime in late October.
