By Alabama Public Radio
Huntsville, AL – A California woman who allegedly kidnapped her four-year-old daughter and put her up for adoption in Alabama is in jail in a Sacramento suburb. Ilene Hill was arrested in South Carolina in May and extradited to California. The 23-year-old is being held on a $500,000 bail -- in the same jail that houses her daughter's father. The case has attracted the attention of celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who represented Scott Peterson's former mistress Amber Frey. Allred says Hill was a battered woman who should be protected not prosecuted. Allred says all Hill did was try to find a loving, safe home for her child. Hill put her daughter up for adoption without notifying the child's father, Jesse Baldizan, who had joint custody. He didn't find out about the adoption until after the girl was already living with the Barlow family outside of Huntsville. Hill is expected to enter a plea on the child abduction charge Tuesday. The child's paternal grandmother in California now has custody of the little girl.