Eric Hyett, 37, is charged with custodial interference.

Hyett and Joshua Glazer, 29, were married in Massachusetts four years ago and lived in New York City.  They separated last year.

While still together they adopted a boy they named Jedidiah shortly after his birth, when the boy’s mother, a friend of the couple’s, gave him up.

When then couple’s breakup turned nasty the battle centered around the boy, now 23 months old.

After the couple separated a court awarded Glazer primary custody and Hyett visitation rights.

Under the court terms Hyett was allowed to see the boy every weekend.

Earlier this month Hyett asked to keep the boy two extra days so that he could take Jedidiah to Boston to visit his grandparents and Glazer agreed. 

Hyett fled with the child to Jerusalem. Police returned Jedidiah to Glazer ten days ago.

Hyett returned to the US voluntarily. Police said it was doubtful Hyett could be extradited to face child abduction charges in the US.

He was arrested in Boston at Logan Airport and waived extradition to New York.

Wednesday afternoon he was arraigned in a Manhattan court.

Police say they believe it to be the first abduction case in New York City involving a married gay couple in memory.

A multi-millionaire, Gaydamak is considered a dark horse in the campaign to lead the city. He currently is placed third in public opinion polls.

Gaydamak told an audience at a hospital he owns that he is prepared to lie down on the road and risk death to prevent the parade from taking place.

Nevertheless, he said he was not homophobic, telling supporters that gays are a part of society and must be accepted. He said his objections to the parade were based on religious concerns because Jerusalem is considered holy to Jews, Christians and Moslems.

This year’s gay pride parade went ahead despite attempts by the city to get an injunction blocking it.  The Supreme Court denied the injunction in June.

More than three-thousand people marched through the city, guarded by some 2,000 police.

At one point a small group of haredi, the ultra-Orthodox sect that disrupted pervious pride celebrations, were blocked by police from coming close to the parade route. One protestor was arrested. 

Last year, moments before the gay pride march was to begin in Jerusalem, police arrested a man carrying a homemade bomb. Police said the 32 year old said he planned to detonate it near the parade route to scare people away.

The arrest was one of nearly 200 as members of the haredi rioted for several days leading up to the parade. Garbage cans were set on fire and stones thrown at police.  Twenty-two officers were reportedly injured.

Last year some 7,000 police – many brought in from other cities – were stationed along the gay pride parade route, far outnumbering the the marchers estimated at about 1,000.

At one point police rerouted about 500 haredim armed with eggs and bags of excrement. At another point on the parade route, only a few blocks long, protestors tried to pour cooking oil on the road so marchers would slip and fall.

The 2006 pride march was cancelled following a week of rioting in Jerusalem by the haredi.

Thousands of sect members took to the streets for a week, setting fires and injuring more than a dozen people.

Instead of holding a march, Open House held a pride concert and celebration at Hebrew University where anyone entering the grounds was checked by police. There were no incidents.

In 2005 the parade was marred by violence. More than a than a dozen protestors were arrested and three people were stabbed.

Almost 1,000 protestors lined the parade route. Bottles of urine and bags containing feces were hurled at marchers.

Shortly after the parade began Shai Schlissel, a haredi member, rushed into the marchers on Ben Yehuda Street stabbing a man and a woman.

Others in the parade attempted to subdue him. The third victim was a marcher who went to the aid of the other two victims. Schlissel is in prison for the attack.