Raoul Wuthrich's parents - who fled the country after the 11-year-old boy was arrested in a now-dismissed incest case involving his five-year-old sister - have filed intent to sue against Colorado authorities for violating the Swiss-American boy's civil rights.
Andreas and Beverly Wuthrich are said to be seeking as much as $750,000 in damages from both the state and Jefferson County, says APBNews. Last month, the incest case was dismissed when a judge ruled Raoul's right to a speedy trial had been violated.
The Wuthrichs fled back to their native Switzerland after Raoul's arrest fearing authorities might either arrest them or take their other children from them. Raoul's arrest caused a furor in Europe over images of him being handcuffed and shackled. He was held without bail until the criminal charges were dropped, as prosecutors deemed him a flight risk.
He was arrested after a neighbor claimed to have seen him touching his five-year-old sister in a sexually suggestive manner, but the boy and his family and attorney argued he was only trying to help her urinate.
The parents' filing of intent to sue is also said to name a juvenile detention center where Raoul was held at Mount View, before going to a foster home, APBNews says.
But when the judge dismissed the case, he noted prosecutors had acted in good faith based on an apparently troubled family history, with authorities having no choice but to keep the boy in custody when his parents fled. "The parents are under a duty to attend every proceeding that is held in this case," Zimmerman wrote in his opinion, cited by APBNews. "[Instead] they went to another continent and left an 11-year-old child alone."
The defense is also accusing police of leaking information to the press about the Wuthrich's adult video business, which it claims set them up for ridicule and derision internationally.
