MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – A woman who fled New Hampshire with her teenage lover and her young son is fighting for visitation rights with her children after she was recently released from jail.

Jennifer Malone sparked a national manhunt in the summer of 2006 when she and her then-16-year-old lover fled to start a new life in St. Petersburg, Fla. They took Malone’s youngest son, Brennan, with them.

After 10 days, Malone was broke and homeless and sold her son’s video games for food. She and the teenager were spotted at a bus depot, and she was arrested. Malone was convicted of kidnapping and served eight months of a one-year sentence before she was released.

Malone has filed court papers asking for unsupervised visits of her sons on every other weekend, every other holiday and one month in the summer. She also wants joint decision-making powers and notice of school events, sports and report cards.

Her estranged husband, Rod Malone, is fighting the request. He said she isn’t ready for parental responsibility and hasn’t proven she can stay out of trouble. She was charged with stalking while she was out on bail for making contact with the teenager.

“While she was out on bail, she was granted supervised visitation with myself and her parents, and she still managed, obviously, to mess up her bail and go back to jail, and that really crushed the kids,” Rod Malone said. “So that’s why I’m very hesitant to move forward with anything without the court being involved.”

In court papers, Jennifer Malone said she agreed to only have phone contact with her sons “when I was under extreme duress and was pressured and coerced by Rodney.”

The Malones are scheduled to argue the visitation issue in court on Nov. 1.

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