Seattle dad accused of duping court to steal infant daughter Prosecutor: Man who beat girlfriend while she was in labor awarded sole custody of girl

A Seattle father accused of duping a process server, two judges and Texas police into helping him kidnap his own daughter now faces felony charges.

King County prosecutors claim Eling McCabe Orton convinced the courts to give him sole custody of his newborn daughter by concealing the fact that he never told the girl’s mother he’d filed a lawsuit.

Having tricked a process server into serving the lawsuit on a stand-in for his ex, Orton, 33, was awarded sole custody of the month-old girl in January after the girl’s mother failed to show in court. Authorities in Texas then seized the child, whom Orton is alleged to have snatched after his legal fraud was exposed.

Prosecutors in Seattle claim the 20-year-old woman fled Washington out of fear that Orton would continue beating her, as he did throughout her pregnancy. The woman told Seattle police Orton choked her, punched her in her pregnant belly and threatened to kill her prior to her fleeing to Texas.

“The defendant has gone to great lengths perpetrating this fraud,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff said in charging papers. “He has involved numerous members of his family and has demonstrated financial resources.

“His actions in depriving a new mother of her infant daughter shock one’s conscious (sic) and demonstrate a willing disregard for the court and our legal system.”

Not long after the girl’s birth in December, the woman and her daughter moved to Texas. It was then when Orton is alleged to have started creating a court-supervised parenting plan without the woman’s knowledge.

Writing the court, a Seattle police detective said Orton arranged to have parenting plan paperwork served on a woman he presented as his daughter’s mother. The process server was duped – Orton apparently regaled him with stories about speaking “dog talk” to his pitbulls – and served the papers on the pretender.

On Jan. 15, Orton appeared in King County Superior Court to ask for custody of the girl. Orton requested a default judgment in his favor, claiming the girl’s mother refused to respond to the lawsuit.

Unopposed because the girl’s mother didn't know she was expected in court, Orton won the day and was awarded sole custody. He then requested and received a court order demanding the girl be placed in his care.

Authorities in Texas seized the girl on Jan. 27 and delivered her to Orton, who had traveled there for a hearing on the matter. Rather than appear at the hearing, though, Orton is alleged to have fled Texas for Washington with the girl.

The girl’s mother “is devastated that this has happened to her and she is very worried for the safety of the child,” the detective said in charging papers. “She stated that Eling is paranoid about doctors and medical treatment and would not allow her to get the baby immunized.”

Following Orton’s escape with the child, the woman told Seattle police that Orton attacked her when she told him she was pregnant, the detective continued. The woman said Orton demanded she strip for money and beat her when she refused.

She also reported that Orton beat her viciously when she was nine months pregnant. According to charging papers, she said Orton kicked her in the back and punched her in her swollen belly; she was in labor with Orton’s daughter at the time.

Despite the apparent abuse, Orton was able to join the young woman in the hospital when their child was born. Writing the court, the detective described Orton as controlling and paranoid.

Hospital staff noted Orton complained that a birth certificate joined a child to “the corporation of the government,” and voiced similar concerns about Social Security numbers.

Orton and the girl remained at large until last Friday, when he was booked into King County Jail. He has been charged with first-degree custodial interference and first-degree perjury, and remains jailed on $500,000 bail.

Check the Seattle 911 crime blog for more Seattle crime news. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.