Articles labeled: adoption fraud

A woman who pleaded guilty to adopting 11 disabled children and collecting big, fat government checks while prosecutors say she severely abused the kids has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. Really? They only got her on the fraud charges? What about the abuse? This woman needs about 11 years for *each* child, served consecutively. Yeah, that ought to do it.

[Judith Leekin] was sentenced Tuesday on wire and mail fraud charges before U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan federal court. Berman said that she had engaged in “a heartless dangerous money-driven scheme”. He noted that she had been abused as a child but said that “adoption is a privilege, not a right”.

Leekin apologized to the court and said “I love my children and I miss them”. The children, who now range in age from 16 to 28, have severe mental and physical disabilities such as autism and Downs syndrome.

Prosecutors said that Leekin treated the children like prisoners. They say that she beat them and made them wear handcuffs, locking them in a room and depriving them of medical and dental care. They were not allowed to attend school, officials said and have been so physically and emotionally abused that they will never recover.

Leekin was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison and was ordered to forfeit $1.68 million.