Torres pleads guilty in stepsister’s death

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, July 2, ‘08

Marraina Torres pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from the death of her 2-year-old stepsister.

Torres, 17, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by culpable negligence after initially being charged with capital murder. She was not sentenced but faces 2-20 years in prison.

Teenager admits killing sister, 2

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, July 3, ‘08

A tearful Marainna Torres stood before Circuit Court Judge Andrew Howorth on Wednesday and publicly admitted she killed her toddler stepsister, Enna Barreto.

She gave no details but nodded her head and said “yes sir,” when asked if she were indeed guilty of manslaughter by culpable negligence.

The legal document accusing Torres of the child’s death states that she did so “by hitting and throwing” Enna into a baby bed May 17. The child died two days later.

(Which would imply the abuse that led to Enna’s death took place in Mississippi before the trip to Memphis, .)

On May 30, the 17-year-old Torres was charged with the capital murder of her 2-year-old sister, carrying possible sentences of life in prison or the death penalty.

Her plea Wednesday now puts the sentence in the two to 20 years range.

Torres also caused a brief stir in the court when she told Howorth she was pleading guilty to a reduced charge “for a lighter sentence.”

Her attorney, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, quickly jumped in verbally when Torres said she was promised leniency for her plea.

That’s not really what she meant, he chattered in legal talk to Howorth.

District Attorney Ben Creekmore also was quick to say his office hadn’t promised anything to her in exchange for her guilty plea.

“Even if they did,” Howorth said to her, “this court would not be bound by it.”

Perhaps what you mean, Howorth continued, is that in pleading guilty to a lesser charge than capital murder, you anticipate a lighter sentence?

Yes, she responded.

and (The Barettos’ lawyer Tony Farese points out:)

“She’s pled down from a possible death penalty case to testify against her parents.

“I believe she has been promised a lighter sentence,” Farese noted from Torres’ remark in court.

Torres was not sentenced, further hinting at her likely testimony in a trial against the Barretos.

Creekmore said he was withholding comment until the Barreto case is “taken care of.”

A September grand jury is expected to consider what charges ultimately will be brought, if any, against the Barretos, who live in rural Union County.

And a final detail:

Union County sheriff’s Investigator Roger Garner said Torres is in an “undisclosed” jail within easy reach of him and her attorney.

The AP also issued a brief story with no other new details based on the DJ article:

Torres pleads guilty in stepsister’s death

AP July 3, ‘08

This hardly concludes the question of how did Enna eventually come to die? More details will likely be forthcoming as the Barretos’ trial moves forward.

Before we can answer how she died, though, we first need answers to how she lived; how did Enna, along with her other ’siblings’ (both the two legally adopted, and the other five Guatemalan[?] kids without adoption paperwork) come to live with the Barretos, how the Barretos came to pass them off as ‘their’ ‘adopted’ children, and what the children endured in the Barreto household.

For now, the various investigations, both state and federal continue. We can only hope, and continue to demand that the right questions are being asked.

The below represents a final round up for a last few articles that hit towards the end of June relating to Enna. While there are certainly other articles out there, these are the one that appear to contain new details. I’ve included excerpts of some of the new material. Lots of new developments happened in late June that I hadn’t had time to blog about yet.

When we left off back on June 7th, Janet Barreto’s biological daughter Marainna Torres had been charged with capital murder in Enna’s death, but not yet arrested as she was under psychiatric care in a Memphis, TN hospital. (Memphis is where Enna died.) Capital murder is definied as a murder that occurs during the commission of another crime, in this case, felony child abuse.

We pick up the story with Marainna’s arrest June 22nd after a month of psychiatric treatment:

Teen arrested, charged with killing sister

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 22, ‘08

After a month-long investigation, the 17-year-old accused of killing her 2-year-old adopted sister is in custody of the Union County Sheriff’s Department.

Bond for Marina Torres of 824 County Road 87, New Albany was set at $1 million after her Tuesday arrest for alleged capital murder. Torres has been a patient at Saint Francis Mental Hospital in Memphis since speculation that she may have caused the death of her adopted sister Enna Barreto last month.

and

Investigator Roger Garner said the Union County Sheriff’s Department has been working very hard to get someone charged with the child’s murder.

“After a month we finally got the suspect in custody,” said Garner. “We are keeping her in an undisclosed location.”

Torres’ parents, Ramon Barreto, 29, and Janet Killough Barreto, 36, are still in the Union County Jail on seven counts of child endangerment each and their bonds are set at $350,000.

and

Garner said information Torres has provided during interviews may lead to charges against the Barretos being upgraded.

Three days later, this DJ article hit detailing new charges against the Barettos.

UPDATE: Barrestos face new charges in daughter’s death

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 25, ‘08

Charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence have been added to Janet and Ramon Barreto’s troubles related to the death of their 2-year-old daughter last month.

Union County Sheriff’s Investigator Roger Garner said this afternoon, the new charge has upped their bond another $150,000 each – bringing their total to $300,000 per person. The Barretos are still in jail charged with seven counts of child endangerment concerning their seven other children.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said they will be arraigned in Union County Justice Court at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Meanwhile, no arraignment has been set for Marainna Torres, Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old daughter, who is charged with capital murder in her adopted sister’s death.

The following day, this article appeared (same name, I know, it would seem the reverse order, but I’m working from the dates.) This article is from Thursday, the day of the hearing:

Barretos face new charges in daughter’s death

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 26, ‘08

The Barretos are still in jail charged with seven counts of child endangerment concerning their seven other children.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said they will be arraigned in Union County Justice Court at 9 a.m. today.

He said the new charge is based on their allowing Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old daughter, Marainna Torres, to care for the young children.

and

Enna Isabel Barreto died May 19 in a Memphis hospital where she had been taken by her parents after they claimed she had fallen from a shopping cart during a family outing. An autopsy ruled the child’s death a homicide.

This, the claim the Barrestos and their lawyer made that Enna’s injuries were caused by falling from the shopping cart in Memphis (thus leading to her death) while in Torres’ care, would go on to become an issue later on.

The Barretos initially were charged with child neglect but that was changed to child endangerment after deputies and child welfare officials searched their 824 County Road 87 trailer-home near New Albany and found squalid conditions inside and a puppy mill operation outside.

All of which were found during the raid on the property back in Mississippi that was sparked by the doctors in Memphis concerns about the children’s welfare.

The next two articles mainly detail how the roughly 2 minute long hearing went.

Couple pleads not guilty in daughter’s death

AP June 26, ‘08

A Union County couple pleaded not guilty Thursday to new charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence related to the death of their 2-year-old daughter last month.

Janet and Ramon Barreto entered the plea Thursday in Union County Circuit Court. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 5. Their bond was set at $100,000 each.

UPDATE: Barretos plead not guilty to new charges

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 26, ‘08

Janet and Ramon Barreto, shackled and handcuffed in a justice court hearing Thursday, pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of their 2-year-old adopted daughter, Enna.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, actually pronounced the words “not guilty” for them before Judge Ronnie Rackestraw. The entire hearing took less than two minutes.

Their bond was set at $100,000 each.

They have been in jail more than a month, on $350,000 bond each, on seven charges of child endangerment after their daughter’s death from head trauma.

Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old biological daughter, Marainna Torres, is in custody in an undisclosed location accused of capital murder in the child’s death. She only recently was released from a Memphis psychiatric hospital, where she was admitted immediately after Enna died.

and

The Barretos are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Aug. 5 in Union County Circuit Court.

and

The six adopted children are in foster homes in custody of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

(As far as I’ve been able to find, still only two of the children have adoption paperwork, while the others are constantly labeled “adopted” in the media, but as far as I can tell, the investigation into the disposition of the other children remains ongoing. See my earlier writings, particularly “Enna and her ’siblings’, where did they all come from?” to understand the scope of the investigation.)

Barretos plead not guilty to new charges

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 27, ‘08

It took two minutes Thursday for Ramon and Janet Barreto to formally be charged and plead not guilty to accusations they so grossly neglected their 2-year-old adoptive child that she died at the hands of her 17-year-old sister.

“I think the state’s gone out on a limb,” their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said immediately after their arraignment at the Union County Justice Center.

and

Janet Barreto’s teenage daughter by a previous marriage, Marainna Torres, is being kept from the public eye, under $1 million bond, charged with capital murder in Enna’s death.

Her attorney, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, said later Thursday that Torres attended a circuit court hearing last week in lieu of an initial appearance to explain to her the charges and her legal situation.

Capital murder is murder during the commission of another crime; in this case, the other crime is child abuse.

Keep in mind that Torres is a minor (17) and her lawyer, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, appears to be a court appointed public defender.

Tony Farese, the Barretos’ lawyer on the other hand, is described below as “one of the state’s top defense attorneys” which I find interesting considering the Barretos themselves do not to first impression appear to be people of vast means.

They made their living renting dilapidated trailers and running animal sales at area flea markets and on the web (see this article, “Horror lurked in country home; children, animals live in filthy conditions” for more details on the treatment the animals received. This quote from the article in particular stood out for me,

“The people that did this should be shot, or at least when we come to spay and neuter these animals we should spay and neuter these people along with them,” said Mississippi State University School of Veterinary Medicine Professor Phil Bushby.”

As the animal article points out though, these animals may have fetched quite the price, giving the Barretos perhaps more of an income than might be assumed at first glance.)

Farese, one of the state’s top defense attorneys, also predicted prosecutors will offer Torres a deal for leniency to testify against her parents.

(speaking of Enna, herself:)

She died of severe head and lower body trauma, which family members originally said was caused after she fell from a shopping cart during a Memphis outing.

(Once again, watch that claim. It will matter further down into this post.)

The endangerment charges come from a sheriff’s department investigation of their 824 County Road 87 trailer home, where they found squalid conditions inside and a puppy mill out back.

“The 17-year-old is the lady who killed the child in question,” Farese insisted Thursday.

For nearly a month after the death, Torres was treated in a Memphis psychiatric facility. It’s only in the past few days that investigators have been able to question her.

“Ultimately, the parents are responsible for their children,” said Investigator Roger Garner. “We’re beginning to get some understanding of what happened.”

Farese said prosecutors, after interviewing Torres, decided the Barretos should be charged anew with manslaughter by culpable negligence because they entrusted Enna’s care to the teenager.

According to Union County’s official charge, Torres became “overwhelmed” with “all care, nourishment, and supervision” of Enna, which led to her death.

If convicted of the new charges, the Barretos could face no more than two years in prison. Justice Judge Ronnie Rakestraw set their bonds at $100,000 each. That brings to $450,000 their total bonds each.

Two years.

You read that right.

Hopefully as the investigations continue more charges will be leveled against them, possibly relating to the immigration status of the Guatemalan kids they ‘adopted’, yet seem to have no paperwork. Animal abuse charges are also in here somewhere, I believe, but in light of the immensity of what the Barretos have done, a pathetic two years seems unthinkbale.

I want to digress for a moment and once again discuss the ongoing coverage. First of all, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is really the only paper doing ongoing coverage of the aftermath of Enna’s death and their detailing of the developments has been invaluable!

But unfortunately, even in the DJ, the framing continues to be toned down, (referring to the story below.) While I fully understand how difficult it can be to fit all the angles and details into any given story, language assumptions such as ‘adoptive parents’ in light of the ongoing investigation into how the Barretos got a hold of the Guatemalan children really needs some retooling.

Everything surrounding Enna’s death goes far beyond tragic, much of it is criminal, and caught in a legal system, that to date, has only been able to apply charges with relatively minimal penalties.

It is far from “tragic” that her ‘adoptive parents’ are in jail and thus cannot walk to visit her grave, it is instead tragic that the few penalties they face to date relating to Enna’s death are so minimal that they may very well be able out to visit her grave in the not distant future.

Everything surrounding Enna Barreto’s death is tragic

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 30, ‘08

Who is responsible for the death of Enna Barreto?

Did her parents, one American and one naturalized from Mexico, treat her so poorly by entrusting her care to her older sister that the teenager became overwhelmed and killed her?

It’s going to be Torres (’s) word against the Barretos. Is it that simple?

The questions surrounding Enna’s procurement, suffering, and death, and that of her so called ’siblings’ run far deeper than a mere they said/she said.

Farese describes his clients as good people, who love children. They apparently went to some lengths and extensive financial burdens to adopt the seven.

Again, speaking to those ‘adoptions’ only two appear to have the paperwork intact. As for the others, there are vast questions about how the Barretos managed to procure so many Guatemalan children, and the lack of an official paperwork trail on the kids.

Did they “love children” as their lawyer presents them, or did they just love collecting children, perhaps illegally?

The limited in scope questions the DJ article asks are simply not the right questions.

Unfortunately articles, such as this continue to be riddled with broken language, (”adoptive parents”.) While yes, the kids ended up with the Barretos, calling such a (legal) “adoption” remains a long way from being proven.

But the article does provide some insight into how Janet Barreto’s Daughter, Marainna Torres’ attorney, Thomas Levidotis intends to portray her:

Torres’ attorney, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, says he won’t predict any outcome except to find a way to protect “this child,” as he calls her.

and

Levidiotis says Torres is “a fragile person.” After Enna’s death, she spent 30 days in a Memphis psychiatric facility.

“She’s not some kind of mean person, a hoodlum,” he insists. “She’s entitled to our best efforts.”

It also discusses a bit about how the case will likely go forward:

First, unless District Attorney Ben Creekmore comes up with acceptable plea agreements all around, a Union County grand jury will take a look at the facts.

That’s expected in September.

The Barretos’ attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, is working to portray his clients as victims, placing the blame for Enna’s death squarely on Marainna Torres and seeking a lower bond for the Barretos.

(I’m in inverting the order of these next two article excerpts for a moment;)

Last week, they walked into the Union County Justice Center courtroom to face the new charges – Ramon, 29, a slight man wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, hands cuffed, legs shackled. Janet, 36, in grey sweatpants and a navy T-shirt, hands cuffed, legs shackled.

After the two-minute hearing they stood docily beside Farese staring blankly at two sheets of paper outlining the charges against them as TV cameras got their video.

“It’s been a tragedy – losing not only your child … locked in jail, accused of capital murder, paraded around to and from jail,” Farese observed afterward.

and

… Farese soon plans to ask for a lower bond so the Barretos can get out of jail and go home to the trailers where investigators believe Enna was attacked by Torres.

This last bit, “home to the trailers where investigators believe Enna was attacked by Torres” would seem an important direct contradiction to the family’s earlier claim that Enna died after (as a result of) having fallen from a shopping cart in Memphis, TN while under Torres’s care (the same argument their lawyer has used.) (See “The family initially claimed she had fallen from a shopping cart during a Memphis outing.” from the earlier in the same article.)

This then would then place the harm Torres allegedly caused to Enna back ‘home’ in Mississippi prior to the trip to Tennessee.

So we now have a new question, did Enna’s injuries (severe head and lower body trauma) take place in Mississippi or Tennessee? (stay tuned on that front… .)

A secondary question then comes- IF the injuries to Enna primarily took place in Mississippi, were the Barretos aware of such and if so, at what point?

Fortunately, the investigation has been ongoing:

Union County sheriff’s Investigator Roger Garner says he hasn’t stopped his investigation.

Farese, pressing ahead with the conversation, said prosecutors are going to have to tell him what Torres said, then he’ll have a chance to disprove it.

“She’s going to allege crazy stuff and we’re going to put her on the polygraph,” he told reporters Thursday.

Garner came right back, confident about what he’s got.

“I’m not crawling out on a thin limb, if I didn’t think the state’s case would hold.”

The article also includes a few details concerning Enna’s final resting place:

Back at Martin Cemetery, Enna Barreto’s grave at plot No. 50 is the last one on the back side of a relatively undeveloped part where almost all the 11 other graves are as far away from hers as possible.

Looming over the red dirt shoveled atop her tiny white casket, a few floral arrangements from her May 22 funeral are still there, now in varying degrees of decomposition. The stuffed toys on some of them have lost their fluff from the changeable weather.

Even though the Barretos cannot visit her grave yet, Garner says he does.

That’s it for June. I’ll have the ‘early July’ Enna related stories up soon by way of kind of a ‘part II’ on this catching up.

There’s more, much more to come to this long sad saga.

*

Meanwhile, my usual 3 adoption questions remain-

Who did the homestudies on the two adoptions that were legal?

What part of the adoption establishment did the two placements?

And where the fuck was the follow up for these kids? Did anyone ever bother to check on them after placement?

and

Enna & her ’siblings’, where did they all come from? 6/3/08

Yesterday afternoon (6/6/08) news of the older sister being charged in Enna’s death back on May 30th broke.

See, for example the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal article entitled Sister charged in 2-year old’s death.

Seventeen-year-old Marainna Torres is charged with capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old adopted sister, Enna Barreto, Union County Justice Court records show.

(Keep in mind, Enna’s ‘adoptive’ ‘family’ consisted of 9 kids: 2 biologically related to at least one parent, and 7 others, including Enna who were adopted/’adopted’ [the paperwork was missing on 5 of the kids.] Only two of the ‘adoptions’ were said to have been proven to have gone through normal channels.)

and

Torres is the daughter of Enna’s adoptive mother, Janet Lee Killough Barreto, by a previous marriage.

She has not yet been arrested in the death and is believed to be under psychiatric evaluation in a Memphis hospital. The record of her capital murder charge is dated May 30, said Justice Court Clerk Larissa Edwards.

Oxford defense attorney Thomas Levioditis has been or will be appointed to represent her, said Assistant District Attorney Kelly Luther on Friday.

The AP story from later on last night revealed few other details. This may the first time an article has mentioned Enna’s full name, Enna Isabel Barreto.

Union County Justice Court Clerk Larissa Edwards told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that a May 30 document showing the capital murder charge is in the court’s records.

*******

* This hit my e-mail after I had already posted the above, a new article from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, “Sister Charged in Union Death“:

Oxford defense attorney Thomas Levioditis has been or will be appointed to represent her, said Assistant District Attorney Kelly Luther.
Late Friday, it was unclear whether a judge had ordered the legal representation, but Luther and Levioditis confirmed the arrangement.

“I haven’t spoken with her yet,” said Levioditis, noting Torres is being treated “where she can be diagnosed.”

Capital murder is a murder that occurs during the commission of another crime – in this case it’s felony child abuse, said Union County sheriff’s investigator Roger Garner.

As late at 5 p.m. Thursday, District Attorney Ben Creekmore told the Daily Journal no new charges had been filed in the case.

and

Chancery Court documents show Marainna Torres was born April 26, 1991, the daughter of Janet Killough Torres and Martin M. Torres. They were divorced in 2000.

She is believed to have attended Victory Christian Academy in New Albany.

What part of the adoption industry was involved in the two actual adoptions?

For new readers, allow me to refer you back to my original post, “Enna, oh Enna! aka When animals outweigh a dead Guatemalan ‘adoptee’.” But for my regular readers, the below is merely an update with a few new details coming out.

Here’s an Enna -centric (and her fellow “adopteed” “siblings”) as opposed to puppy-centric bit of reporting, Marshals, Homeland Security probe Union case, from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, (6/3/08).

Apparently, even homeland security is now looking into the case.

Garner said the Marshals Service wants to determine the immigration status of individuals under investigation or related to the case.

And where these children came from, how they got to the U.S. and their legal status also is the focus of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Barretos themselves are still in Jail.

Ramon Barreto, 29, and Janet Killough Barreto, 36, described as Enna’s adoptive parents, are still in the Union County Jail on seven counts of child endangerment. In addition to Enna, they are parents to Mrs. Barreto’s 17-year-old daughter Marina Torres, a young child of their own and six other “adopted” children from kindergarten-age to 2.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said last week he expected to request a hearing to reduce their bail, set at $50,000 per count each. That hearing has not yet been set. He insisted his clients had nothing to do with the child’s death.

Farese also said he expected charges to be brought against the 17-year-old. Union County Investigator Roger Garner said Monday it’s possible the scope of the case may expand, but how that may occur and who it will involve hasn’t been determined yet.

District Attorney Ben Creekmore has said there’s still a lot of work to do before the direction of the case becomes clearer.

As for the other children, the article goes on to state:

Monday, DHS spokesman Julia Bryan said the children are doing very well in safe environments, although privacy restrictions prevent her from saying any more or whether they are together. Garner confirmed they are doing well.

There was also a New AP piece on the case out today, Couple charged with child endangerment, (6/3/08) though it contains few new details in light of the DJ piece.

Guatemala annulls 15 adoption cases

What I found most concerning was this-

The babies whose cases have been annulled will be put in foster homes until a judge locates their parents. If their parents aren’t found, they will be put up for adoption again.

in light of this

The irregularities were serious enough that the attorney general filed criminal complaints against lawyers, doctors, social workers and birth mothers involved in the 15 cases, Meng said.

Great ’solution’, eh?

U.S. Adoptions Fueled by Guatemalan Kidnappings

“Demand for Guatemalan Children Is So High, Baby Snatching Is Rampant”

Just go read it.

No commentary necessary, other than to point out the obvious, ANY agency “guaranteeing” much of ANYTHING in realtion to these kids in Guatemala is suspect.

This from the Australian Broadcasting Corp-

Baby traffickers arrested on China-Vietnam border

To quote just a little:

The two babies were turned over to a social welfare centre, the officer said.

“This is the third baby trafficking case we have detected this year, bringing the number of rescued babies to five,” he said.

Vietnamese police busted a trafficking syndicate in February, which sold babies to China for adoption, reportedly charging about $US500 each for girls and $US1,000 for boys.

___________

Late addition-

Ethnically Incorrect Daughter has more details, “6 Vietnamese suspeted of trying to sell babies arrested.”

Looks like I’m not the one paying attention.

Nearly half the international adoption agencies in Colorado are losing money, five are at risk due to debt and one has generated so many complaints that state officials warned potential clients that they might want to look elsewhere for help with a foreign adoption.

Those findings, contained in a state audit of 22 licensed international adoption agencies, have prompted Human Services Department officials to propose new rules and policies they say are designed to protect prospective parents.

The recommendations come as the state attorney general’s office is investigating five unidentified international adoption agencies.

One of the first recommendations being made is that agencies be made to carry proper insurance:

• Requiring licensed agencies to be bonded and carry appropriate liability insurance.

I found this particularly interesting as several years ago I was sitting in the National Council for Adoption (NCFA’s) conference, listening to agencies being advised specifically NOT to carry liability insurance, as to do so might encourage lawsuits against the agency. By purposefully NOT carrying insurance, it was hoped the agencies would look like less of a target as there would be little to get, thus making it not worth the time and effort to sue them.

Not surprising, considering NCFA was created by the industry for the industry. They are no friend to Bastards. Clearly they understood the implications of what the spectrum of adoption related lawsuits could mean to their member agencies- thus the preemptive advising that agencies make themselves ‘not worth the effort’.

The article continues:

In addition, the department wants to expand its oversight so it can monitor the business practices and financial health of adoption agencies operating here.

This in theory at least strikes me a a damn good starting place, considering the (if you’ll pardon the phrase, particularly in relation to CO,) ‘wild wild west atmosphere’ that pervades to much of the adoption industry. Now admittedly, this is being done in the name of consumer protections for Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs), but clearly we’ve come to the point where even those with power and money in the adoption structure have been screwed so deeply and so often that states like CO are considering stepping in.

The department initiated the review after it received complaints about agencies that arrange international adoptions and after the arrest of Lisa Novak, director of the Claar Foundation, based in Boulder County.

Since June 2006, four international adoption agencies have closed in the state. In addition, the state temporarily suspended the license of one agency, Charitable St. Philomena, in March because it improperly completed adoptions, didn’t have a qualified director and refused to allow the state to conduct inspections of its business operations. That agency has since corrected the problems and is again licensed, according to the audit.

McDonough said she did not know the exact number of complaints that sparked the investigation.

“It was not massive, but it was large enough to be concerning” and involved multiple agencies, she said.

Complaints against one agency were serious enough that in February, the state sent letters to five families it knew to be working with that agency.

The state wrote, in part: “This letter is to advise you that this department has received several complaints concerning Adopt a Miracle.”

The letter, signed by Beye, included a list of other licensed international adoption agencies.

Adopt A Miracle, based in Lakewood, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Several other agencies likewise did not return calls seeking comment.

CO has been unable to even review the salaries at 8 of the 22 agencies:

The state had hoped to include a review of agency salaries in the audit, but eight of the 22 agencies did not disclose salary information.

Clearly more details on the existing situation are yet to come out, as the preliminary hearing for the director of the Claar Foundation, Lisa Novak, is set to begin later on this month.

Of the 14 agencies that did, the Claar Foundation reported paying the highest annual salary: $169,350.

Claar’s director, Novak, has been charged with two counts of theft and one count of fraud, and the agency has closed. She was accused of taking thousands of dollars from prospective parents but never completing adoptions. A preliminary hearing is scheduled May 19 in Boulder.

Bottom line is PAPs, who drive the market need to understand that adoption, and yes even their own adoption processes is not all sweetness and light. There are scoundrels operating in the field, many states do little oversight and regulation, and particularly in international adoptions that ‘orphan’ being marketed to you may be anything but.

More to the point, the adoption industry itself recognizes that it has real problems, after all, why else would agencies go to the NCFA conference to receive advice on the importance of not carrying insurance?

The authorities in Guatemala have suspended the adoption of some 2,300 children by foreigners for at least a month to check for irregularities.

…

The government had been under pressure to curb a controversial trade where intermediaries could be paid thousands of dollars to arrange an adoption.

Guatemala’s attorney general, Baudilio Portillo, said the cases being put on hold were already in the system before the new legislation took effect.

Mr Portillo said the cases would be checked “one by one” to see if the children being offered up for adoption were really the offspring of the parents whose names appeared on documents supplied by private lawyers.

If there were any doubts, DNA tests would be carried out.

The attorney general’s move was prompted by concern expressed by Guatemalan legislators and the newly created National Adoption Council over possible anomalies and manipulation of DNA results in some cases.

Unfortunately, even in cases where the DNA tests are accurate, DNA tests are no measure of genuine consent, and no measure of whether or not the biological parents were paid for the child.

But for what it’s worth, I’m very pleased to see this case by case review, because as recently as last November, I was deeply concerned these adoptions were simply going to go forward without any detailed investigation. You can see my earlier frustrated blogging on Guatemala titled “The post I can’t write- Guatemala” where I said:

This is where my post on the unfolding Guatemalan adoption disaster was going to appear. But that’s not what you’re going to get. The more I dug into Guatemalan adoptions, the more I researched the personalities, structures, and organizations at the center of the firestorm was the more I knew I could never write the real post.

My personal opinion: I’ve become convinced Guatemala is being used as nothing short of a baby farming system.

I had just spent several days doing research on what all had been happening, and while there was much I would have like to have put in that post, mere allegations are not enough. A careful investigation was what was going to be really necessary, and at the time, it appeared such was unlikely.

It’s a mess, so to no small degree I’m glad to see Guatemala’s attorney general had the good sense to hit the pause button and decided to give it the careful scrutiny that is so desperately needed.

No doubt there are plenty of people who disagree with me on this. But as I said in my earlier post- rather than learning from history, some prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) appear not to give a damn whether the kid they are adopting was kidnapped, sold etc, OR are in deep denial that such could happen to them, not them, not their agency. When the sad fact of the matter is these tactics are far more widespread than anyone wants to come right out and admit.

The screaming is already well underway, the endless mantra of “I want what I want and I want it right NOW!”, or, to paraphrase, ‘I’ve already paid so much, I’m already so invested, I want what I paid for, how dare anyone stand in my way!’

Which, while not representative of ALL PAPs, is clearly representative of a noisy segment of said population ( We were treated so a small taste of such at the Adoption Ethics and Accountability Conference’s Guatemala Forum last Autumn.)

For the kids’ sakes, I can only hope the circumstances, whatever they may be, come to light quickly.

Considering what I’ve found in my research on Guatemalan adoptions, allow me to add, I hope any(/the) perpetrators and their crimes also come to light quickly and are dealt with swiftly and appropriately.

Vietnam to end adoption program with U.S. after report

Quoting several excerpts:

HANOI, Vietnam – Vietnam is ending a child adoption agreement with the United States after being accused of allowing baby-selling and corruption, officials said today.

…

The decision was made following a report from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi that was first obtained by The Associated Press, alleging pervasive corruption and baby-selling in Vietnam’s adoption system.

The report lists cases in which infants were sold or birth mothers were pressured to give up their babies. In some other cases it describes brokers going to villages in search for babies who could be possibly put up for adoption.

It also says some American adoption agencies have been paying orphanage directors for referrals, and some others have bribed orphanage officials by taking them on shopping sprees and junkets to the United States in return for a flow of babies.

In an angry response, Vietnamese officials denied charges, calling the U.S. side’s allegations “unfair.”

“They can say whatever they want, but we are not going to renew it,” Long said.

The decision also will lead to the closure of 42 U.S. adoption agencies operating in Vietnam, Long said.

The U.S. Embassy says it respects Hanoi’s latest decision but is confident about the accuracy of the report.

“The government of Vietnam has made their own decision, but we believe that our report speaks for itself,” said the U.S. Embassy’s spokeswoman, Angela Aggeler.

The thing to keep in mind here, is that even though the accusations are aimed at Vietnam, it’s the agencies and their practices we’re ultimately talking about here- often American agencies, that operate in many countries, not just Vietnam.