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Weber County prosecutors dismissed a first-degree felony child kidnapping charge against Fernando Deleon-Barrios, 51, of Los Angeles, less than a week after his Aug. 29, 2009, arrest in Ogden, saying the 11-year-old girl he was accused of abducting had been placed with him in a staged plot to frame him.

Ogden police arrested Deleon-Barrios after a woman at the Days Inn on Washington Boulevard called 911 to report seeing a man take the girl into a motel room. The caller said the man was driving a green Toyota 4Runner with California license plates and that the girl "was looking a little bit nervous" as she went inside with him.

Police said Deleon-Barrios had picked up the girl near Jefferson Park, across the street from the motel, and arrested him that evening. The case unraveled within days. Weber County Attorney Dee Smith asked a 2nd District judge to dismiss the charge on Sept. 3, saying detectives had found Deleon-Barrios was the target of what investigators called "an elaborate scheme of coercion and bribery." Smith said his office had "no intention to file charges against him."

Investigators said Deleon-Barrios's fiancee, Rosalina Urrutia, 28, of Clearfield, arranged for him to drive the girl, whom he did not know, to the Days Inn, then left the two alone so a call could be placed to police. Urrutia's sister, Carmen Urrutia, 29, and Maria R. Osorio, 40, the girl's aunt, were accused of helping carry out the plan. Police said the girl was paid $100 and Osorio was paid several hundred dollars more to go along with a story that the girl had been abducted by a stranger.

Osorio was arrested and later pleaded guilty to witness tampering, a third-degree felony. 2nd District Judge W. Brent West sentenced her in December 2009 to a suspended prison term, one year in the Weber County Jail, three years of probation, a $585 fine and a court-ordered psychological evaluation. She faced a separate aggravated assault charge stemming from a knife fight days after her arrest in the kidnapping case.

The Urrutia sisters left Utah before they could be arrested, and warrants were issued charging both with witness tampering, police said. Deleon-Barrios was briefly held on an immigration detainer after the criminal charge was dropped; he was released the next day when federal immigration officials lifted the hold. Police said he had an old theft record from California but nothing of a sexual nature.