A Long Island couple has asked a judge to vacate the adoption of two Russian-born children who suffer from serious mental disorders and are now living in state institutions.
In a rare move, Nassau County Surrogate’s Judge Edward McCarty III will keep his courtroom open for the case, which starts this month, citing public interest in the “disturbing facts” surrounding the adoption, including the allegation that adoption agencies pulled a “bait and switch.”
Russian adoptions have made headlines in recent years, with several adopted children dying in the custody of their new American parents, and a Tennessee mother returning her adopted son alone on a plane to Moscow in 2010. Russia banned US couples from adopting its orphans in 2013.
In the case Matter of Adoption of Child A and Child C, the couple asks the court to dissolve the 2008 adoption of “purported siblings” who were found through Spence-Chapin in New York and Cradle of Hope in Maryland.
The couple claims the agencies described the children, then 6 and 8, as “healthy and socially well-adjusted.”
But shortly after the adoption, it became clear that the children had serious medical and psychiatric problems, the couple says. The children threatened to kill them many times, the parents claim.
In a separate legal action against the agencies, the couple alleges they learned post-adoption that the children are not related and had been sexually abused.
The children, now 12 and 14, are now in state mental-health facilities.
If the adoption is vacated, the children would become wards of the state. They could remain in mental hospitals or be eligible for foster care.
Adoption experts are watching the case closely. Some worry the public court battle will play into the hands of Russian propagandists who portray American adoptive parents as violent and incapable. Others are concerned that the allegations of inaccurate or withheld records could have a chilling effect on foreign adoptions.
“If agencies had to warranty that children are in good health, agencies would shut down,” adoption attorney Irene Steffas said.You can do that with a car but you can’t get a warranty with a human being. That’s a dangerous position to put an agency in.
- Attorney Irene Steffas
“You can do that with a car but you can’t get a warranty with a human being. That’s a dangerous position to put an agency in.”
Still, Steffas agrees that an adoptive parent is entitled to “every doctor’s report, every shred of evidence about the child’s health and background.”
Adam Pertman, president of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency, said: “So many kids from institutionalized settings come to us abused and neglected. If the records are not accurate, parents are not prepared for the challenges they will face. They don’t get sufficient training. And they don’t get the support and services they need.”
There have been 60,000 Russian adoptions to America in the past three decades, and $330 million has been spent on these transactions.
The judge’s opinion on keeping the court open says an estimated 20 percent of Russian children adopted in the United States suffer from developmental difficulties. The State Department says it does not keep statistics on this.
McCarty’s opinion also cited the fact that 18 Russian-adopted children have died through violence by their adoptive American parents in the past two decades; 75 percent of these children were in the United States for less than six months and were under age 2.
Though the courtroom will be open, the judge has asked the media not to reveal the sealed identities of the parents or children.
The couple’s attorney, Thomas Rice of Albanese & Albanese of Garden City, did not return calls seeking comment.
Linda Perilstein, executive director of Cradle of Hope, and Leslie Case, of Spence-Chapin, both declined to comment.