Mother lived lavishly while keeping her adopted children locked inside a utility room

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...081002408.html

Documents: Fla. Mom Cashed in Insurance

By TRAVIS REED
The Associated Press
Friday, August 10, 2007; 10:12 PM

FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- A woman accused of living lavishly while her 11
adopted children were neglected and abused cashed in a life insurance
policy and was starting to put her home up for sale as investigators
closed in, court documents released Friday show.

Judith Leekin cashed in a $62,000 policy and called a real estate
agent to sell her home, according to more than 200 pages of records
from prosecutors. She also left four of her children at another son's
house shortly before she was apprehended.

Leekin is accused of using four aliases during two decades in New York
City to adopt the 11 children in a scam that paid her $1.26 million.
She lived in a five-bedroom house with posh furnishings and a pool but
forced all the children to sleep together on the floor in a utility
room, according to a Port St. Lucie Police investigator's report.

The children were kept in a room with the knobs reversed, allowing
someone to be locked inside, the report says. All have scars on their
wrists and ankles, apparently from being tied and handcuffed. None
appears to have more than a fourth-grade education, authorities say.

The adopted children range in age from 15 to 27. Ten are now in
Florida state care.

Leekin's attorney, Mario Garcia, has entered not guilty pleas. He did
not immediately return a telephone message left late Friday.

Police searching Leekin's house found a letter at the front door with
a life insurance check for $62,987. The company was later asked to
cancel the check and wire the money to Leekin's attorney, the
documents say.

A native of Trinidad, Leekin moved to Florida several years ago,
immigration records say. She remains jailed in lieu of more than $4
million bail on 10 charges, including child abuse.

Florida officials had previously investigated abuse allegations
against her but were stymied in 1999 because New York authorities
couldn't find her records. Local investigators caught on last month
after Leekin allegedly abandoned an 18-year-old woman at a store in
St. Petersburg, 200 miles from home.