A Texas man is being held in a Russian prison for alleged crimes committed back in the United States.
Houston resident David Barnes was apprehended by Russian law enforcement in Moscow in January and has been imprisoned in the country ever since.
David Barnes was in Russia hoping to obtain legal authorization to see or bring home his children after his Russian ex-wife allegedly disobeyed a court custody order and left the United States with them, his family told ABC News.
On January 13, Russian investigators detained Barnes in Moscow and accused him of assaulting his two children in Texas years earlier, according to translated court documents.
Svetlana Koptyaeva, Barnes’ ex-wife, made similar accusations against Barnes to Texas authorities during their lengthy and contentious divorce proceedings.
The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) looked into the claims in 2018 but determined there was not enough evidence to support the accusations. Consequently, DFPS concluded the investigation without filing any charges against Barnes.
Barnes is currently not officially charged with any crime in Texas.
His sister, Carol Barnes, voiced her concern for her brother’s future because he is imprisoned in Russia at a time when relations between the country and the U.S. are strained due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Barnes first moved to Texas in 2007 and began working as a design engineer in the Houston branch of a software firm headquartered in Alabama.
Svetlana Koptyaeva was living and working in Houston as well. The two eventually married and had two boys, one of whom has dual citizenship in Russia and the United States.
Koptyaeva filed for divorce in 2014. Over the following five years, the two parents engaged in an extensive custody dispute resulting in a jury trial and multiple court appearances in Texas.
A divorce petition submitted on Koptyaeva’s behalf stated, “Petitioner believes that Respondent [David Barnes] has a history or pattern of sexual abuse directed against” one of their children.
In 2017, Koptyaeva and Barnes reached a settlement deal, which included that Koptyaeva was “to refrain from making statements, either written or oral, to any third party, alleging that … [David Barnes] … molested his minor child and/or engaged in improper sexual contact with his minor child.”
According to a constable’s office in Montgomery County, Koptyaeva and the kids were questioned by police in 2018 over sexual assault allegations that she had made. Following those allegations, a search warrant was carried out at Barnes’ Woodlands apartment, but no charges were ever made.
Per a custody agreement, Koptyaeva was supposed to bring the kids to a predetermined meeting place at the beginning of 2019 so Barnes could have them for a few days. Instead, she allegedly absconded with them.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Koptyaeva failed to comply with a court order giving Barnes partial custody of the two kids.
She also “failed to comply with any condition for travel outside of the United States with the children,” as on March 26, 2019, she and the boys boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Houston to Istanbul.
She is now wanted in Texas on a felony charge of interfering with child custody.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) recognizes March 26, 2019, as the day the kids vanished. The group still regards the children as missing after publishing yellow international police alerts with images of them.
According to a criminal complaint, the FBI tracked Koptyaeva to Turkey by April 6, 2019.
In August 2020, a Montgomery County judge appointed Barnes the sole managing conservator of his sons, giving him the authority to choose their residence and schools and act as their legal representative. Despite the appointment, the children remained with Koptyaeva abroad.
Koptyaeva was eventually located in Russia, according to a report written in November 2020 by Robert Berleth, the court-appointed receiver.
Carol Barnes reported that her brother decided to travel to Moscow in December 2021 after consulting a lawyer to see if he could obtain at least partial custody or restricted visitation privileges with his children in a Russian court.
The ex-spouses allegedly met after Barnes arrived in Moscow. He rented a room close to where Koptyaeva reportedly resided. According to Carol Barnes, the ex-wife allegedly contacted Russian authorities and made the same child abuse claims that Texas authorities could not substantiate.
Russian law enforcement quickly detained Barnes in Moscow.
When Kelly Blackburn, trial bureau chief at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, learned about Barnes’ detainment, he said, “We were not aware that Mr. Barnes was being held in a Russian detention center. At this time, there are no accusations out of Montgomery County that we are aware of that would allow Mr. Barnes to be held in custody.”
According to his relatives, Barnes has spent most of his time in Russia in Moscow’s Detention Center 5.
There have been other Americans and even Texas residents detained there recently.
As reported in The Dallas Express, a former Marine from Texas named Trevor Reed was arrested by Russian authorities in 2019 and sentenced to a nine-year prison term. Reed spent some time in Detention Center 5 after being accused of attacking two police officers in Moscow.
Russian authorities freed Reed in April in exchange for a Russian man who was being detained in Connecticut following a federal drug trafficking conviction.
In an interview with ABC News, Reed characterized his pre-trial detention facility in Russia as “extremely dirty” and rat-infested.
Brittney Griner, another Texan, is still imprisoned outside of Moscow. Russian authorities claimed that the WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist had vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage when they seized her at an airport. The U.S. government has declared that Griner is being “wrongfully detained.”
State media in Russia covered Barnes’ arrest, but the matter had not previously gained attention in the United States.
Barnes’ friends, family, and employer have called for his release in response to the revelation that he is being held in Russia.
Philip Ivy, vice president of Houston-based engineering firm KBR, said, “We continue to hope for his well-being and safe return home as soon as possible.”