Father, 2 others, accused of kidnapping Greece children back in court

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — A father accused of arranging the kidnapping of his two children faced a judge Tuesday morning.

Dimitri Cash and two other people are accused of working together to kidnap the children from their foster home in Greece earlier this year.

Tuesday was a Huntley Hearing, which reviews how police got statements from the defendants, along with a probable cause hearing. The defendants, Dimitri Cash who is the children’s father, Joenathan Cash who is Dimitri’s cousin, and Kimara Pluviose, are all being charged with the kidnapping.

Prosecutors questioned Greece and New York State Police detectives about their phone interviews and interrogations with the defendants.

One, in particular, was a voluntary interrogation with Joenathan, where he allegedly asked multiple times "to go home”.

"The state police is on the stand, saying he’s free to leave, but any time he wants to go home, he wasn’t allowed out of that room,” said Joenathan’s attorney, Paul Guerrieri.

Another statement, that was taken over the phone from Joenathan was also questioned.

"I feel they would have to establish, I mean you don’t know who’s on the other side of the phone. The important thing about that statement was that Mr. Cash was out of state even the state police and prosecution acknowledged that, he provided documentation of it,” said another one of Joenathan’s attorneys, Clark Zimmermann said.

"I mean, this hearing is for the voluntary of statements so that’s what a Huntley Hearing is for,” said Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Sara Van Strydonck.

Greece Police say Pluviose and Joenathan broke into the foster home on Vintage Lane in January abducting Dimitri’s five-year-old son Dimitri Cash Jr., and three-year-old daughter, Shakeria Cash, at his order.

Right as court was about to adjourn, there was new information submitted. Prosecutors said that Joenathan allegedly smuggled a letter in a bag of chips at the jail to a co-defendant offering that one of the three should “take the fall" and that person would “be taken care of".

Cash’s attorney says he just learned about the letter during Tuesday’s hearing.

"I don’t know if it came from my client, we don’t know anything these are allegations, they did show me an image that appeared to be a letter,” Guerrieri added.

Prosecutors declined to comment further on the note but in court they did say, Joenathan allegedly said they would “get the person who took the fall out of custody", creating concern over a jailbreak.

"When someone is making, alleged statements in a jail escape certainly that would lead us to believe that their intentions wouldn’t be pure when coming back to court even if they don’t have a criminal history,” Van Strydonck added.

Because of the note, Joenathan was listed as a flight risk and bail was set at $150,000 cash.

We’re still waiting for a date for the next hearing because the courthouse is operating on COVID schedules. News10NBC will have updates as they become available.