A New Jersey man arrested on attempted kidnapping charges Downriver last month will remain behind bars.
Federal investigators say Mandarakas placed an electronic tracker on the woman’s car. She found it and deliberately parked the car at the church to see if he would arrive.
Mandarakas, 37, used to work for Notre Dame University in fundraising. The complaint says he dated a woman for over four and a half years at the school, claiming to be a student, which he wasn’t.
When the young woman found out, she tried to break it off. The feds say Mandarakas refused, repeatedly coming back to Michigan from New Jersey looking to convince her to marry him.
Mandarakas’ appearance Wednesday was about bond and whether he could convince a judge he should be allowed out of jail before his trial.
Local 4 saw two dramatically different characterizations of Mandarakas by the government, which called him an organized and methodical planner looking to abduct his former girlfriend after the affair ended.
On top of the tracker found on the victim’s rental car, the feds say they found another, along with a stun gun, lots of cash, multiple cell phones, and maps to sail from Florida to Cuba, among other places, and lists of how to survive on the run.
The defense claimed the feds had it all wrong, saying Mandarakas is disorganized and heartbroken, emotionally distraught after his father’s death, getting evicted from his family’s home, having his affair exposed, and marriage ending.
The feds also found his personal car with much of the contents of the childhood home in it, and the items like cell phones weren’t burner phones but old and out-of-date family cell phones. He offered his mother to drive him to live in Florida while on bond awaiting trial.
After deliberating, Judge Kimberly Altman told the 37-year-old the circumstances, the level of planning, and the details were chilling to the court.
She added being deceitful and having an obsession point out his dangerousness. The judge told him the “Court needs an element of trust to get bond. I cannot trust you.”
Altman said she was particularly concerned about the safety of the former girlfriend in making her decision, saying she didn’t know which Mandarakas was standing before her.
