Detained US soldier's mother speaks out: 'I begged him not to go'
Melody Jones, whose son Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black is detained in Russia, joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss why she begged him not to go and how her mother's intuition came into play in the situation.
The mother of a U.S. soldier who was detained in Russia said her son's Russian girlfriend asked her for money shortly before her son was arrested on theft charges.
"It was over Facebook. She wanted me to set up another account and send money," Melody Jones, the mother of 34-year-old Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, said during "America's Newsroom" on Wednesday.
Jones told anchor Bill Hemmer her son's girlfriend asked her for $600, which she considered to be a red flag.
Black was detained on May 2 in the Russian Pacific port city of Vladivostok while visiting his girlfriend in the country. He was assigned to the Eighth Army U.S. Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys in South Korea and traveled to Russia for "personal reasons," per the Pentagon.
Jones said it was a "mother's intuition" that led her to warn him against taking the trip in the first place.
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"I begged him not to go," Jones said. "I said 'please don't go. I don't think it's going to end well for you.' I told him I had a really bad feeling about him going… I was worried more than... when he was in Iraq, for some reason."
The Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok said, "When choosing the preventive measure in the form of detention, the court came to the conclusion that US citizen B. (Black) -- under the weight of the charges -- could hide from the preliminary investigation authorities and the court to avoid responsibility," according to Reuters.
It reportedly added that Black will be detained until July 2 for "secretly stealing the property of citizen T., causing the latter significant damage."
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Russian officials in Vladivostok said a 32-year-old woman had filed a complaint against the 34-year-old Black, Reuters also reported.
The news agency cited the officials as saying that the pair met in South Korea before Black came to visit her in Russia, during which they became involved in an argument. She then reportedly filed a police report accusing him of stealing money and Black was taken into custody at a hotel.
Photo of U.S. Army soldier Gordon Black sending a holiday message from Iraq in 2009. (U.S. DoD)
Jones previously told ABC’s "Good Morning America" (GMA) that she believed the girlfriend "set up" her son. She also described her son's relationship with the Russian woman as "volatile," and even suspected the longtime girlfriend might be a spy.
She said she told her son not to travel to Russia when he was supposed to be returning home to the U.S. while on leave.
Russian authorities claim Black will remain in pretrial detention until July 2. The Army has since opened an investigation into Black's travels, which will include a probe into possible consequences stemming from his trip.
Fox News' Greg Norman, Greg Wehner, Pilar Arias and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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