NYC woman pleads guilty to kidnapping baby in bogus casting call
Posted April 1, 2011 2:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The woman accused of kidnapping a baby at a fake casting call in Toronto plead guilty to abduction Friday.
Michelle Gopaul, a 24-year-old model, actress and aspiring singer from New York, was charged with abduction of a person under the age of 14 after a one-month-old baby went missing when her parents brought her to a Bollywood movie casting.
She was sentenced to 2 1/2 years, in addition to the time she has already spent in custody.
Gopaul was originally arrested on December 30, 2010 after the little girl, Roma Patel, was found unharmed in Toronto’s east-end later the same day.
Gopaul admitted she took the baby to trick her boyfriend into thinking they had a child, but didn’t know what to do with the baby once she had her.
Gopaul tearfully admitted to the judge she was afraid to give the baby back, so instead she handed the infant off to her ex-boyfriend knowing he would return the child.
Gopaul’s lawyer Gary Batasar told the court she was in Toronto on a student visa, and planned to study at the Fiorio hair salon.
She told the court she had “never been in trouble with the cops before,” adding that she was sorry for everything.
“Everyone thinks I’m a bad person but I’m not a bad person,” Gopaul said, shaking and crying before the judge.
Batasar told the court Gopaul had been taking medication for sleeping and anxiety problems, and had a lengthy history of depression.
