Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Mom of the Year?

Apologies to stray off the political talk slightly, but I think this story from good ol' Fox News is an example of the problems within the foster care system:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida woman accused of using aliases to adopt 11 New York children received as much as $2 million in child welfare payments even as she starved, bound and abused them, police said Tuesday.

Investigators initially believed Judith Leekin, 62, had adopted nine children, but authorities in New York said Tuesday that Leekin adopted 11 children in all from New York City's foster care system between 1993 and 1996.

Authorities believe Leekin held the adopted children like prisoners in her Port St. Lucie home, often handcuffing them together and forcing them to soil themselves because they weren't allowed to use the bathroom.

Leekin made about two million dollars total (which is about $55 a day of state funds) to abuse children. I'm going out on a limb to say nobody checked up on her. Oh, and what tipped off authorities that this lady was running the foster home from hell?

The case came to light July 4 when an 18-year-old woman was found wandering in a grocery store in St. Petersburg, about 200 miles away from Leekin's home. The woman told police Leekin had adopted her 13 years ago and abandoned her at the store that day.
What a class act.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It gets better. Apparently Leekin told the girl initially that they were going to an amusement park. True class knows no bounds.