California couple charged with deporting woman to the Philippines

Federal prosecutors are accusing a San Diego-area couple of posing as law enforcement officers while forcing a relative's wife to leave the country.

In January, Gregory Raymond Denny Jr. allegedly posed as a U.S. marshal and forcefully deported his cousin's pregnant wife, Cherriebelle Hibbard, to the Philippines. Police told the Associated Press that Denny — a former bounty hunter — flashed a phony badge and then handcuffed Hibbard. He then forced her husband to buy her a plane ticket back to the Philippines.

Denny and his wife, Karen Denny, took Hibbard to the San Diego airport, and told Transportation Security Administration officers that he was a U.S. marshal escorting a prisoner, the FBI said in a statement.

Hibbard is still in the Philippines. Her husband, Craig Hibbard, told the Press Enterprise that her visa had recently lapsed and that the couple was trying to renew it.

"I despise him. What he did was unbelievably wrong and I can't believe he did what he did," Hibbard told the paper. Denny's lawyer denied the charges.

The Dennys could face a lifetime sentence if convicted.