Kidnappers/Escort Rules and Regs? Emancipated Minor?

[FaceKhan]

I was talking to this girl and she seemed to think that since these escorts are not cops and what they do is only semi-legal at best they can't legally touch you unless you touch them first.

She said that when they came for her she told them she was not going and that she knew that that was the law and was careful not to touch them.

Then they said they were leaving and reached out to shake her hand and she shook it without thinking and was in handcuffs on the ground pretty quick. Then she said she was flown across the country in handcuffs and her pajamas and then left at the destination airport still in handcuffs alone for 3 hours and then the program (which she says was not abusive but definitely had all the classic cult lingo like feedback and "my experience of you...") did not have handcuff keys to let her out until the next day.

Anyone know if this is true in Maryland about escorts? And anyone know if anything they did was illegal like leaving a minor in an airport in restraints in her pajamas? I mentioned to her that she could still technicly sue until she is 21 for anything that happened before 18.

Also she said she was an emancipated minor at the time of her abduction due to her parent's divorce. Would that mean that it was legally kidnapping?

[notworking]

Well, I don't know much about Maryland law, but here's my quick and dirty take on what you were told --

This touch vs. not touch thing is really weird and not consistent with any legal doctrine I'm aware of.  I could see it, maybe, if the issue was assault or risk -- like if she attacked them or seemed to be a threat to herself or someone else -- but responding to a handshake is neither.  I suspect they did the whole handcuffs thing after shaking her hand because they wanted to surprise her, not for some legal reason.

Second of all, you can't take a handcuffed person on a commercial airplane.  And one would think she would have said something to airport staff along the way.  So I don't know what's up with that.

Yes, if you confine someone against their will (in a room, in a car/plane, with handcuffs, whatever) it is a) false imprisonment, which is a tort (civil wrong) and b) some variation of kidnapping (what, exactly, depends on the state criminal code).  In addition, it is a federal crime to take people over state lines for illegal purposes.  But you don't become an emancipated minor due to parental divorce.  You have to be officially emancipated by the court.  If this woman had emancipation papers, then the above analysis would apply.  If not, it's a bit murkier.  

Leaving someone in an airport in PJs in handcuffs is a crime.  Again, what that crime is called depends on the specific state and specific circumstances.  If she is in fact emancipated, then you're looking at a kidnapping-type thing.  If not, then it's a child endangerment/abuse issue.  

But I just don't understand why she didn't ask someone at the airport for help.  Methinks we don't have all the details?