Insanity cited in
abandonment case

Nikki Cliff-Vasquez, 25, allegedly
left her 3 kids at the airport

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

A 25-year-old Makakilo mother accused of abandoning her three children at Honolulu Airport likely was suffering from a psychotic disorder at the time, a psychologist has said.

But Dr. Tom Cunningham, in a letter filed yesterday in state District Court, concluded that Nikki Cliff-Vasquez apparently is fit to proceed with her case.

Attorney R. Patrick McPherson entered a not-guilty plea by reason of insanity on her behalf to three counts of child abandonment. The misdemeanor offense is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,000 fine.

Cliff-Vasquez, a military dependent, allegedly left her children, ages 4, 6 and 8, outside the main terminal Oct. 13 after telling them a family member was going to take them to New York to visit their grandmother.

A security guard found them wandering by the foreign-arrivals terminal with a suitcase, $517 in cash and a Bible.

The 6-year-old boy told authorities his mother gave him the money to buy the plane tickets.

After her arrest and during the early stages of her incarceration, Cunningham said, Cliff-Vasquez showed "severe psychotic symptoms" that he believed had developed before the incident.

He said she was "delusional, paranoid, confused, and alternated between agitation and lethargy," and at times required restraints and involuntary medication.

He could not determine the cause of her psychosis or when it would recur.

On Nov. 7, Cliff-Vasquez did not appear to be impaired by a mental disorder, he said. Cunningham found that she does not pose a significant danger to herself or others. He recommended that she receive regular psychiatric care and continue taking medications.

McPherson would not comment on Cliff-Vasquez's condition but said no one knows exactly what happened or why.

Cliff-Vasquez was arrested three hours later at the 7-Eleven Pearl City store. She admitted leaving her children at the airport and apologized.

Cliff-Vasquez's husband, Peterson Vasquez, is in the Army and was stationed in Germany at the time of the incident.

Cliff-Vasquez and her children had stayed behind while she finished some educational requirements, McPherson said.

The court ordered Cliff-Vasquez to be released yesterday from the Women's Community Correctional Center into her husband's custody. Her husband has been caring for their children, who were unharmed.

He has been reassigned to an Army base in New York not far from where the couple's family lives.

The family is expected to leave for New York next week, McPherson said.