Iraq vet, wife trade charges in Dubai custody battle

Video: Mom fights to bring daughter home from Dubai

Open in new window

2. Closed captioning of: Mom fights to bring daughter home from Dubai

   Advertise | AdChoices

   >> let's take it to natalie.

   >> it's a custody fight being played out on opposite corners of the globe, all over an 18-month-old american girl . the father, a decorated war veteran working in dubai . the mother back home in the u.s. without her daughter. the accusations are flying on both sides. we'll talk to the little girl 's mother in a moment. first nbc's janet shamlian has the latest. good morning.

   >> good morning to you. we traveled to dubai to meet this special little girl . we also spoke to her father. chuck peters, a west point graduate, three tours in iraq as a member of special forces . yet after 10 years in the military, he feels he could be arrested if he steps foot on u.s. soil. there was a lot of fun on a sunday afternoon as chuck peters and his daughter caroline beat the heat at their neighborhood pool in dubai . but behind the smile, chuck says he's in a fight tougher than any he faced during a decade in the military. a battle for his daughter. it started like a storybook. chuck and stacy met in high school and married while he served. a stellar military record, two bronze stars . the couple then moved to dubai for a contracting job soon after caroline was born.

   >> we were happier than we've ever been in our life. it's almost like we had start add vacation life.

   >> but not for long. the marriage fell apart after chuck accused stacy of having an affair, using prescription drugs and endangering caroline .

   >> can you imagine he would do this. i really believed in him. without a doubt, there is zero drug or alcohol abuse in my history. and if he could prove any of this, he would do it here.

   >> she accused chuck of physically abusing her, which chuck says is false. he filed for divorce in dubai stating adultery, a crime in the united arab emgrat could have time in prison.

   >> when i realized she was no longer rational, putting harm -- putting caroline in danger, i knew i had to act quickly in order to protect my daughter.

   >> stacy denies the adultery claim, calling it a cover-up.

   >> he had to accuse me of something, because filing for divorce makes him look bad.

   >> without a passport for caroline , stacy , who is more than five-months pregnant says she was forced to flee dubai without her daughter. she says she hasn't seen caroline since the end of march. stacy has gone to court in her home state of tennessee where a judge declared her husband's actions constituted constructive and actual child abduction and kidnapping. chuck feared this court order could lead to his arrest if he returns to the u.s.

   >> that's very disconcerting. as i said, somebody who served their country for so long, that's a dagger to the heart. it really hurts me.

   >> amidst it all, a joyful little girl who can't possibly know of the fight on two corners of the globe.

   >> she got the best of both stacy and i times 100. she's an incredible little girl .

   >> on the day we visited, friends came over for pizza. caroline 's paternal grandfather was visiting from minnesota. this is not, as chuck said, a case of a dad snatching his daughter.

   >> i think that's ridiculous. it's preposterous to say i'm kidnapping her when i'm living in the same house. i have the same job. we have the same friends. i go to the same pool every day. it doesn't make any sense to me to call that kidnapping.

   >> and yet it's stacy peters who has not been able to see or even talk to her daughter since the end of march. it's heartbreaking for any mother but most difficult for this beautiful little girl seemingly because the in the middle.

   >> absolutely. janet shamlian , thank you. stacy peters here with us along with her lawyer. good morning to both of you.

   >> good morning.

   >> i know it's hard to see your little girl , you haven't seen her in months, to see her on video like that. you say you had no choice but to flee dubai . why would you leave her behind, leave dubai .

   >> he took everything from me. i wasn't -- i was in fear for my life. i had no other choice. i would have left with her a long time before that if i had any ability to.

   >> you claim your husband abused you, and he denies these charges. did you ever report this to anyone? did you report it to authorities in dubai ? did you report it to the u.s. embassy or anyone at home in the u.s.?

   >> i reported it to an overseas domestic violence organization who explained to me that if i do for the police in dubai , they would take my passport and i wouldn't be able to leave then. i couldn't report it there.

   >> he meanwhile says you're the one who endangered his daughter. he said you have a problem with prescription drugs , that you also admitted to being unfaithful in the marriage during a therapy session. what do you say to those sessions?

   >> he left me in dubai with caroline for three months. he never made these allegations to me at any point until the last month. i never heard these from them. he's never been worried about caroline before.

   >> a tennessee court temporarily awa awarded to stacy and constitutes what he's doing as kidnapping. if he comes to the country, what will happen to him.

   >> at the moment he refused two separate court orders that require him to come to court to caroline and explain the rights and wrongs. let the american court decide what's best for the child. he's being held in contempt of court for still hiding in dubai . he should know he accused stacy of terrible immorality charges under the penal law of the united arab emirates . i spoke to the family before she left and spoke to lawyers there, the advice was she needs to leave on the next plane, otherwise she will be in jail. you do not want to be in jail in dubai . she was forced out. that's what the american court decided. so there's always two sides to the story.

   >> there are two sides to the story and we're going to have to leave it there. we hope, for your daughter's sake, somehow this gets worked out amicably between you

   Show transcript