BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME: NEBRASKA DUMP FIASCO

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NOTE: I am at, of all appropriate places, the annual NCFA conference in Washington. I’ve bailed out of the last 2 sessions to get something up about the Nebraska kid dump fiasco. I’m checking of the hotel later today, and will be back with more, and to add/fix some links and don’t have time to add right now. To date 14 children have been dumped into hospitals and police stations (not a legal dump spot) under Nebraska’s “safe haven” law.” None are newborns, the targeted “beneficiary” of such laws.The kids left in Nebraska “safe havens” have mostly been teenagers. On Wednesday, a father left off 9 siblings at the Creighton University Medical Center ER. Here is a brief run-down.BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COMESeptember 1: Boy 14 (left by Omaha police station) September 13: Boy 11 ( left by grandmother (another report says mother) at Immanuel Medical Center, Omaha); Boy 15 (left by guardian aunt at Bryant Medical Center West, Lincoln) September 20: Girl, 13 left by mother at Immanuel Medical Center Omaha) September 24: 9 siblings, 1-17 (left by father at Creighton University Medical Center ER) WHAT DID THEY EXPECT?But…but….that’s not what we meant! Backpedaling Cornhusker politicians seem to Continue Reading →

WARNING AUSTRALIA: SAFE HAVENS COMNG YOUR WAY?

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Tasmanian senator Helen Polley has written to federal and state-attorney generals pushing no-questions asked, anonymous baby dumping throughout the country. The Australian press reports that Polley would designate police stations and community centers as drop-off points Incredibly Polley says, (emphasis mine) “Safe Havens secure a baby’s physical well-being and offer support to their mother.” Who’s her target group?: “These new parents may be scared, may have financial concerns or they may have a mental illness.” Nothing like recruiting the poor and incompetent.

RETURNING TO THE HEART OF DARKNESS: NCFA CONFERENCE

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Today I’m trekking once more into the Heart of Darkness to attend the annual National Council for Adoption conference, this year appropriately titled Surviving and Thriving in Volatile Times. Indeed! Topics include lots of industry survival stuff: private-public collaboration, mergers, ethics (or lack thereof), international updates, and my favorite: Validating Your Agency’s Purpose: What Research Really Tells Us About the Impact of Adoption on Birthparents, Children and Families. (Care to bet a week’s wages–if you’re fortunate enough to have a job–there’s no mention of records snatching and identity theft?) I’m especially looking forward to the return of The Story Lady–Dr. Karyn Purvis–who equates wheeling your kid around the store in a grocery cart with child abandonment. (Do you really want to know?) Purvis will keynote lunch on Thursday followed by a break-out with an “infant massage representative.” Guess what I won’t be sitting through. I’m undecided about the unPierceian 6:30 am pilates. On the upside, I won’t have to listen to a lecture on Primal Wound Theory or pass a Kleenex box around the room.

ANOTHER MASHA ALLEN UPDATE: JAMES MARSH’S STATEMENT

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Masha’s former lawyer James Marsh has issued a statement on ChildLaw Blog regarding this new lawsuit: Last week we inadvertently discovered that a Philadelphia law firm recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of our former client Masha Allen. We hope that Masha may now finally begin the process of obtaining some measure of civil justice from the individuals and entities which were complicit in her ongoing sexual abuse and exploitation… …Unfortunately the current litigation does nothing to achieve the Georgia Bar’s longstanding edict aimed at safeguarding Masha’s future.Go here to read the rest.

MASHA ALLEN UPDATE: MASHA SUES ADOPTION AGENCIES; SOCIAL WORKER JEANNENE SMITH

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On September 15, Masha Allen and her “guardian and parent” Faith Allen filed suit in the US District Court District of New Jersey against adoption agencies Families Thru International Adoption, Child Promise, Reaching Out Thru International Adoption and adoption social worker Jeannene Smith under the descriptive term Negligent Adoption Placement. When Bastardette first read the phrase on the Civil Cover Sheet she thought it said “Malignant Adoption Placement” a better term, though probably with no legal legs. Masha is asking for $100,000 in damages, which seems awfully low to me. But as they say, you can’t get blood out of a turnip, and maybe she’s looking for a reasonable amount that could be collected. Masha was already awarded $200,000 in “mandatory restitution ” from her pedophile purchaser Matthew Mancuso. According to the law, this paltry amount is supposed to cover “the full amount of the victim’s losses” over a lifetime (yeah, right!) Masha received nothing from the confiscation by federal authorities of Mancuso’s property, business, investments, and other assets estimated to be in the millions. I am not sure where Masha’s “mandatory restitution” is, but for all intents and purposes she is a state-dependent pauper under the “guardianship” of her Continue Reading →

ALLEN V FAMILIES THROUGH INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION, INC; CHILD PROMISE, INC; REACHING OUT THRU INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION,INC; AND JEANNENE SMITH

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I have made two minor changes in the text: removed page numbers to make it easier to read and made a note in italics to indicate that Point 33 is missing. ****** UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTDISTRICT OF NEW JERSEYMASHA ALLEN, by her Parent and :Guardian FAITH ALLEN :Johnstown, PA 15907 ::vs. ::FAMILIES THRU INTERNATIONAL :ADOPTION, INC. :400 Bentee Wes Court :Evansville, IN 47715 :And :CHILD PROMISE, INC. (formerly known :as Reaching Out Through International :Adoption, Inc) :c/o JOSEPH P. HUDRICK :Registered Agent :4 Ridge Road :Southampton NJ08 088 :And :REACHING OUT THRU :INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION, INC. :c/o JOSEPH P. HUDRICK :Registered Agent :4 Ridge Road :Southampton NJ 08088 :And :JEANNENE SMITH :312 South Lincoln Avenue :Cherry Hill, NJ 08002 : CIVIL ACTION COMPLAINT PRELIMINARY STATEMENTThis action seeks compensation from the adoption businesses who facilitated and permitted a pedophile to adopt, sexually molest and exploit the minor plaintiff for approximately 5 years. Despite one red flag after another, the defendant adoption organizations recommended, facilitated and assisted a pedophile in the adoption of the minor plaintiff. Once placed with the pedophile, appropriate post placement evaluations were not performed. As a result, the minor plaintiff suffered unconscionable, repetitive and ongoing sexual abuse and sexual Continue Reading →

JESSICA SCOVIL UPDATE: UNDER THE COVER OF ANONYMITY THE WELFARE STATE DOES ITS DIRTY WORK

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According to Sunday’s Atlanta Journal Constitution, Jesssica Scovil was removed from the care of her parents Evelyn Carter and Robert Scovil on an anonymous tip filed with Jackson County DYFS: Like many new parents, they (Carter and Scovil) struggled to cope with their new family responsibilities. They lived in a government-subsidized home in Jackson County, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta. Then one day in March, the state child welfare agency appeared at their door, responding to an anonymous complaint that Jessica was not receiving proper parenting and supervision. The person said Evelyn Carter had not bonded with her child and that baby Jessica had not been kept clean, according to agency records… DYFS also claimed it received a report that Robert Scovil had driven drunk with Jessica in the car, a claim he denies. A month later (April 2008) DYFS removed Jessica from her parents for everybody’s own good and placed her with the more responsible Wendy Osborne, 29, a veteran foster care provider and an adoptive mother with a record as spotless as eternal sunshine. On September 2 Osborne left Jessica in an over-heated Dodge Caravan to die while she slept off a medically induced stupor in the Continue Reading →

MICHIGAN: STOP HB 4696 AND HB 8297

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Michigan deformers have capitulated. Michigan’s original clean obc-access-rights-for-all bill has been replaced by something-is-better-than-nothing-for-a-few-favor legislation: the tie-barred HB 4896 and 6287. These bills, which must be passed together, contain a disclosure veto disguised as a Contact Preference Form that authorizes what the leggies quaintly call “former parents” and even more quaintly, “former siblings” to block issuance of the obc to adopted individuals. The bills also contain a contact veto. They have already passed the House and are now in the Senate. I had high hopes for Michigan, which already allows some adoptees to retrieve their obc and their identity. And I am sorry and sad that good people with good intentions have taken a short-term approach instead of a long-term solution. In the end we all pay. These bills need pulled. Below is the Bastard Nation Action Alert and how you can help stop this travesty. PLEASE FORWARD FREELY MICHIGAN HOUSE BILLS 4896 & 6287 The Michigan House of Representatives has just passed two very restrictive adoptee rights bills, HB 4896 and HB 6287, by the frightening majority of 90 – 10. The bills have now been forwarded to the Senate Committee on Families and Human Services. Please contact ALL Continue Reading →

LUDDITE BACK AT WORK

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This is pathetic. I went away for the weekend, and when I returned we were hit by the tail-end of Hurricane Ike. The power went out twice and the third time it stayed out–until last night. Oh the horror! No Internet! No carping, kvetching. No BS. No Obama and McCain. No AIG. No Seattle Mutual. No Lehman Brothers. No Iraq and Iran. No Sarah Palin and all her dysfunctional other Palins. (OH NO!) And best of all…no adoption, and no wacky Nebraska ill-behaved adolescent dumps. The Bad Cats, resentful, were forced to entertain themselves chasing grasshoppers and snooping through my neighbor’s porch since they had no keyboard to dither across, no blogs to erase. By sunlight I read Mistress of the Vatican and by candlelight The Ellery Queen Omnibus. And I cleaned. Walking through my neighborhood last night, candles flickering in windows, folks cooking outdoor, reading aloud to each other (something that sounded peculiarly Roger de Coverleyish)… before the return of modernity… Life was genuine. Authentic. Life was not AdoptionLand.

FLORIDA: THE SAFE HAVEN DRAGNET CATCHES ANOTHER

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Now that you brought it up, Robin…Here is the latest “safe haven” news release from A Safe Place for Newborns distribution list, September 8, 2008. ( This press release is not online. I tried to post the entire email, with graphics, here, but due to the vagaries of Blogger, the right half of the page was cut off. If anyone would like the original email, let me know and I”ll forward it to you.) A Precious Life Saved and Now a Future. A Mother and Father decided to have their baby born safely in a Hospital. The baby is a health little boy. Not able to properly care for for this child, they made a compassionte decision to leave the baby in the “Safe Haven for Newborns” program. They told us – “We want him to have a chance in life and now he will.” The baby’s name is Andreas We are assisting the biological parents at this time. Saving Lives: Newborns and their parents! Our mission contiones…………Saving one life at a time. Nick Silverio, Founder. Our mission continues………..Saving one life at a time. Nick E. Silverio, Founder Please visit www.asafehavenfornewborns.com to learn more. REMEMBER: A newborn left under the Continue Reading →