Gregory J. Parrish, of 95 Elm St., was arrested Tuesday, charged with two counts of second-degree custodial interference, a misdemeanor charge.

Parrish's former wife, Rebecca Shanks, of Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, had filed charges against him Monday.

The investigator traced Parrish to Winsted and reported his discovery to Shanks. Police said Shanks brought court documents from Texas Monday morning to the Winsted Police Department verifying her legal custody to the children.

According to police, at the time of the alleged abduction, Shanks had full custody of the children when Parrish took them out of state.

Despite a 1997 divorce decree that awarded custody to Rebecca Shanks of Mesquite, Texas, she has no plans to uproot the children again, her lawyer said Wednesday. She just wants to see them from time to time.

Susan Jordan, Shank lawyer, said the case is simply a matter of a mother who wanted to be reunited with her children.

"Her goal was to see the kids again, to let them know that they have a mom that loves them," Jordan said.

Shanks' ex-husband, Gregory Parrish, 37, of 97 Elm St., Winsted, was arraigned in Bantam Superior Court Wednesday on two counts of second-degree custodial interference. Parrish and his 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter have lived in the state for about nine years, authorities said.

Shanks showed up at the Winsted police department on Sunday with her husband, Joe Shanks, asking that an officer accompany them to Parrish's home so that Rebecca Shanks could visit her children, an arrest warrant says. Rebecca Shanks told police that a private detective hired by her employer had located Parrish. She saw the children briefly in court Wednesday and plans to spend the next few days visiting with them.

" She's not seeking to take them back to Texas," Jordan said. " She wants to see them and visit them and have a relationship."

"There's no animosity here," said John Cizik Jr., the public defender representing Parrish. "These kids were aware of their mother, they have

"These kids were aware of their mother, they have pictures. It's not a case of [the father saying], "You don't have a mother.'"

Jordan said Shanks had sought help from police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a child search agency in her efforts to find her children over the years.

Cizik said Parrish has never hidden or used a false name. "Obviously it was not hard to find him," Cizik said.

"He's been very out in the open and legal and lawful for all these years," Cizik said.

Neither Shanks nor Parrish could be reached for comment Wednesday.

State statutes say second-degree custodial interference charges can be filed against "a relative of a child who is less than 16 years old and intending to hold such child permanently or for a protracted period and knowing that he has no legal right to do so, he takes or entices such child from his lawful custodian''

"She is not a vindictive person at all," Jordan said. "She didn't want him to go jail."

Shanks plans to stay in Connecticut to visit for a couple days before returning to Texas, Jordan said.

Shanks and Parrish were divorced in 1986. The divorce decree gave Shanks custody of the children, with Parrish getting visitation rights.

Some time after the divorce, the children moved in with Shanks' mother after Shanks was evicted from her apartment, according to the arrest warrant. When Shanks' mother became ill and was hospitalized in the fall of 1987, Shanks agreed to let the children stay with Parrish at his mother's house, the warrant said. Five weeks later, when Shanks went to the house to pick the children up, she learned that Shanks and the children had left the area, the warrant said.

Cizik said Parrish left with the children for "reasons that are in dispute." He declined to elaborate.

Shanks told Winsted police that after Parrish left with the children, she filed a custodial interference complaint with police in Richardson, Texas. But Richardson police said they have no records regarding a complaint filed by Shanks, according to the warrant.

Cizik said Parrish left Texas to live with his father in Florida. He said Parrish has lived in

After more than a decade apart, a Texas woman saw her son and daughter Wednesday, the day her ex-husband was arraigned on charges he took the children from Texas I I years ago.

Despite a 1987 divorce decree that awarded custody to Rebecca Shanks of Mesquite, Texas, she has no plans to uproot the children again, her lawyer said Wednesday. She just wants to see them from time to time.

Susan Jordan, Shanks' lawyer, said the case is simply a matter of a mother who wanted to be reunited with her children.

"Her goal was to see the kids again, to let them know that they have a mom that loves them," Jordan said.

Shanks' ex-husband, Gregory Parrish, 37, of 97 Elm St., Winsted, was arraigned in Bantam Superior Court Wednesday on two counts of second-degree custodial interference. Parrish and his 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter have lived in the state for about nine years, authorities said.

Shanks showed up at the Winsted police department on Sunday with her husband, Joe Shanks, asking that an officer accompany them to Parrish's home so that Rebecca Shanks could visit her children, an arrest warrant says. Rebecca Shanks told police that a private detective hired by her employer had located Parrish. She saw the children briefly in court Wednesday and plans to spend the next few days visiting with them.

"She's not seeking to take them back to Texas," Jordan said. "She wants to see them and visit them and have a relationship."