Huxley Stauffer: The best gift until you’re not. Short update and more questions

Newsweek reports that the Delaware County Sheriff has confirmed that Huxley Stauffer has been located.  I love the lede:

YouTuber Myka Stauffer’s ex-son Huxley is not missing, say authorities. This confirmation came after claims that the five-year-old child was unable to be located after he was “rehomed” by Stauffer.

Nobody is saying where, of course since–you know–adoption is confidential.

But the investigation continues, which makes me think the Sheriff is taking this seriously. A welfare check on the bios is expected.

It looks like Huxley was non-bureaucratically re-homed with the current endgame of private placement. The Stauffers are being represented by Columbus adoption attorneys Tom Taneff and Taylor Sayers.I have never heard of Sayers, but Taneff is a very familiar name. I can’t reach into in my memory deep enough to remember why (though it may be obvious) whenever I read or hear his name I get queasy.

But I do remember this:

Twenty years ago I was part of a panel discussion on OBC access during a 2-day adoption law conference on records access and open adoption held at the Capital University Law School Center for Adoption Law and Policy (then the Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law and Policy). The presentation went really well. The then-director of the law center hated Bill Pierce and NCFA. He refused to invite him to present an opposition argument, so he got a proxy, who actually supported records access, to play the heavy and present the opposition argument. She did the minimum and squirmed a bit.

Eye Roll: Later,Taneff sat behind me and another Ohio activist.  We were confounded and baffled when he informed us that he had no idea that post-1963 OBCs were sealed. And he was Quad A; a leading adoption lawyer in the state! Indeed!.

More questions:

  • Did Taneff get involved with the Stauffers from the beginning, or did he sign on when the frying pan sizzled hot.
  • Did he get pulled in later to make the transfer “legal?”
  • If he was facilitating a legal re-adoption from the get-go, why didn’t the Stauffers say so and refer questions to him?

You’d think if he were involved in the re-homing scheme he would have intervened publicly for the Stauffers early  on to protect his clients from public outrage, shame, embarrassment, and accusation. Sounds like he’s their cleaner. I hope he’s charging them $650/hr.

I wonder how long it will be before the Stauffers hire a white savior PR firm?

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See my previous blog, Huxley Stauffer and the Pattern of Re-Homing. Making Connnections: The best gift until you’re not for more.

 

 

 

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