NEWPORT, R.I. -- A 77-year-old woman imprisoned for not revealing where her granddaughters have been hiding for five years was granted freedom Tuesday by a judge who lamented there was nothing more he could do to make her talk.
Superior Court Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer released Mary Pigeon of Warwick from custody after a brief morning hearing, but he called it a 'sad day, a sad day for everyone.'
'What could possibly be more coercive than what the court has done? Is there anything that is more coercive than the deprivation of liberty, essentially, to try to get compliance with an order? I cannot fashion anything in my mind that is greater,' Pfeiffer said.
Outside the court, Pigeon told reporters she longs for the day her daughter, Elaine Yates, returns to Rhode Island with her daughters, Kimberly and Kelly Ann.
'I win everything if my daughter and her children would come home,' the grandmother said.
The lawyer for the father of the children, Russell Yates Jr., said he is hoping the court will come up with other sanctions against Pigeon.
'The first thing that would come to mind is an order for money damages. I think that would certainly be coercive,' lawyer Neil Philbin said.
Pfeiffer sent Pigeon to jail on Sept. 10 for an indefinite period when she did not disclose the whereabouts of Kimberly and Kelly Ann Yates.
The girls were 3 years and 10 months old, respectively, when Elaine Yates took them from their Warwick home in September 1985 after finding her husband with another woman.
Russell Yates, who has been granted custody of the children, believes Pigeon knows where they are hidden and Pfeiffer agrees with him. But Pigeon maintains she does not know and gained the sympathy of many Rhode Islanders who flooded radio talk shows with calls.
Among the sympathizers was Gov. Edward D. DiPrete, who directed the Corrections Department last week to ask that Pigeon be allowed to serve her prison time at home. The request became moot once Pfeiffer freed the grandmother outright.
Before sending Pigeon to jail this month, Pfeiffer ordered her to do volunteer work at the Newport-based Society for Young Victims, a private agency that searches for missing children.
The judge hoped Pigeon would reveal where her granddaughters are once she saw the pain parents endure when their children are missing. The plan did not work.
The director of the agency was checking out a tip that the Yates children and their mother were in the Midwest.
