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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) : Police: Adopted children tormented foryears, Investigators say scam stretched from NYC to Fla.



 
 
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Old August 20th 07, 05:51 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) : Police: Adopted children tormented foryears, Investigators say scam stretched from NYC to Fla.

Police: Adopted children tormented for years
Investigators say scam stretched from NYC to Fla.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll...0102/708190031

Sunday, August 19, 2007

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — Adoption is supposed to be a refuge for
parentless children, but for Stephen Wells it was a house of horrors.

Since his adoption roughly 15 years ago, Wells says, he has been
attacked with a stick and a can of evaporated milk.

He says he was handcuffed and tied up and forced to sleep on a cold tile
floor in a locked hallway, where he soiled himself because he wasn't
allowed to use the bathroom.

Scars mark his wrists from years of restraints. Police say he was denied
education, medical care and food, and basically spent his entire life
indoors. His home was his prison.

Wells' account surfaced in recently released court documents and
interviews that provide a fuller picture of Judith Leekin, the woman at
the center of what authorities call a lucrative adoption scheme that
stretched from New York City's hardscrabble Jamaica, Queens,
neighborhood to sunny South Florida.

Leekin, 62, originally from Trinidad, used intimidation and violence to
control her 11 adopted children for years while earning a staggering
$1.26 million in adoptive subsidies, police said.

She has been charged with multiple counts of abuse and could face up to
190 years in prison.

Leekin has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations. Her lawyer,
Mario Garcia, says she loved and nurtured the children, providing them
with medical and dental care and taking them to parks and out to eat.

Much about Leekin remains a mystery. She had two Florida driver's
licenses under different last names, along with two Social Security
numbers. She had at least seven known aliases.

Investigators have been slowly trying to piece together her life, dating
back to her time in Queens, when, according to records, her adoption
plan was probably hatched and perfected.

Authorities believe she used four aliases to adopt the 11 children in
New York City from 1988 to 1996. She adopted only special-needs
children, the ones who brought the highest subsidies — up to $55 daily,
according to the New York City Administration for Children's Services.

She never went to the same adoption agency twice, and she never used the
same name. It wasn't until 1999 that New York began requiring
fingerprints from prospective parents.

It didn't take long for a pattern of cruelty to emerge in New York.

"They were treated horribly. She treated them mean. It was a shame,"
David Spence, an old Queens neighbor, told a local newspaper.

Wells refers to his adoptive mother as "evil." He said he was forced to
sleep on the basement floor in Queens. Once, Leekin left the house all
day and Wells, now 20, urinated on himself, he recently told
investigators. An enraged Leekin took a can of evaporated milk and cut
his right hand, he said.

Wells, who still calls Leekin "mommy," and some of the others are
severely developmentally disabled, a testament to their years of
isolation, police say.

His sister, Tracey Wells, said Leekin once punished her by burning her
hand on a stove.

After the last adoption, in 1998, Leekin moved to Florida with the kids.
Not much later, a rookie child welfare worker came close to catching
Leekin after a tip that she was abusing the children.

Leekin simply denied any abuse allegations, hid the children and fled.
The Florida Department of Children and Families and New York ACS workers
never saw any of the children or their records and closed the case.

In Florida, Leekin lived in a lavishly furnished home.

"Judith Leekin never worked," Claudette Jackson, Leekin's former lover,
told police. Apparently she had never even used her oven or dishwasher,
police noted after searching one of her two homes in Florida.

Her children, now ranging in age from 15 to 27, suffered in silence and
fear.

According to accounts given to police, she would threaten to shoot the
children or cut off their heads if they ever revealed her secrets, and
once told the children she had served five years in prison for shooting
a woman in the head.

Jackson, who did not return repeated telephone messages seeking
additional comment, told police that Leekin was "manipulative." Jackson
said she could hear Leekin screaming at the children, "cursing at them,
the 'whacks' of her hitting them and the cries of the children."

To evade interlopers, Leekin constructed an elaborate surveillance
system, which allowed her to keep watch on a closed-circuit monitor,
police said. Whenever an unexpected visitor approached, she would hustle
the children into a passageway that could be locked with dead-bolts from
the outside, according to authorities.

Tracey Wells told police "of being forced to hide in secret rooms when
someone would come to the house."

Leekin also created fake report cards to document the children's
progress in school, allowing her to keep ACS at bay, according to court
papers.

The abuse went on for years until, police say, she abandoned 18-year-old
Tracey Wells at a store in St. Petersburg, 200 miles from home. That led
to a search of Leekin's house and the eventual discovery of the other
kids. Nine are now are in Florida state care.

A 10th youngster, a 19-year-old, was discovered living homeless
elsewhere in the state. He remains on his own. He said Leekin abandoned
him in 2004.

Some continue to be fearful of Leekin, like Shawn Wells, who turns 28 on
Sunday. A police report said an officer had to "repeatedly reassure him
that she could never hurt him again."

Police are searching for an 11th foster child, an 18-year-old boy named
Shane Graham, whom the children said died in 1999 or 2000.

"Other than his name and date of birth and a nickname, we know very
little about him," Port St. Lucie Police Detective Stuart Klearman said.

At this point, not much is clear, but the children are curious.

"They're asking questions — 'Who are we?"' Klearman said.




CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

 




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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — They were often handcuffed, tethered together with plastic ties and allowed to soil themselves, investigators say. They had scars on their wrists. Some had burns. fx Spanking 0 August 9th 07 05:32 AM
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