Florida Adoption Fraud UPDATED
A new potential birthmother fraud case is being pursued by Marion County, Florida sheriff. It involves Deana Marie Day, age 33.
She was arrested on Friday February 15, 2013 “on a warrant for adoption fraud and grand theft after authorities say she sought and received money from several agencies representing adoptive families.”
She was released the same day on a $4,000 bond.
“Authorities say Deana Marie Day, 33, agreed through a South Florida law firm to give her child up for adoption while the firm paid her for living expenses, and at the same time she allegedly was contacting other agencies and receiving money from them for the same services.”
“Amy Hickman, an attorney with Hausmann & Hickman, located in Palm Beach County and whose website says they specialize in representing adoptive families, said in an interview with the Star-Banner that Day “took advantage of our services,” and “took advantage of my clients.”
Hickman said Day had met her clients and they were assisting her so she would have a healthy pregnancy.
On Feb. 8, Detective TJ Watts received the signed agreement, money transfers and checks written to Day from the law firm.
Talking with a representative from the company, Watts was told that the firm began working with Day in August 2012 as the adoption entity for the proposed adoption placement of a child who she was due to deliver in February 2013.
The agreement stated the office would proceed with the adoption placement, and they would choose the prospective adoptive couple. The agreement also said Day would be paid for her living expenses.
The representative told the detective that Day received $6,718.52 for living expenses.
The agreement was terminated, detectives say, when the firm discovered that Day was accepting cash from other adoption entities at the same time she was receiving money from them.
Hickman told the Star-Banner they knew of five other adoption agencies that Day had contacted, one of which was in California and another in New York. [Is she not allowed to contact multiple agencies?] She said while Day didn’t receive money from all the agencies, they knew of at least two agencies that gave Day at least $2,000 while she had an agreement with them.
Each adoption agency has an agreement that stipulates it is a crime for the mother giving her child up for adoption to work with more than one adoption plan at the same time.” [But is it a crime or a contractual agreement that she can back out of? She had not signed her consent. See Florida laws at http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2011/Chapter63/All “63.097 Fees.—
(1) When the adoption entity is an agency, fees may be assessed if they are approved by the department within the process of licensing the agency and if they are for:
(2) The following fees, costs, and expenses may be assessed by the adoption entity or paid by the adoption entity on behalf of the prospective adoptive parents:
“The day before Valentine’s Day, Watts and Detective Ollue Myers visited Day at her Umatilla residence and she admitted she had an agreement with the Palm Beach law firm to put her child up for adoption, She said, however, that she had fired the firm because she no longer wanted to go through with the plan. She also said she had dealt with several agencies. However, she said they were not being dealt with at the same time.
Watts told her about an agreement she had signed with Little Angels Adoption Agency in Avon Park in December 2012 where she had received $800. During that same time period, the Palm Beach firm had sent Day two checks totaling $400, which she cashed, authorities said. The checks were sent to different addresses in Marion County.
Day said she had cashed the checks and it was wrong, but did so because her husband was incarcerated, authorities said.
Day said she had another child, which was given up for adoption, and didn’t want her current child to go through a similar fate. The child that she was to give up for adoption has since been born.
Hickman would not reveal the gender of the child, but said the child is in Day’s care. She also said it was their first time dealing with Day.
“It’s a shame,” she said.”
Woman arrested, accused of adoption fraud
[Ocala.com 2/16/13 by Austin L. Miller]
Is it the $2000 or $1200 or $6718.52 that was fraudulently obtained?
Comments from people who know her at the article website say the following:
Her sister: “She is my sister. She did fire the first adoption agency. Then started working with the 2nd then the 2nd stopped communication with her (the first was threatening the 2nd) so she contacted a 3rd. Now she is the bad guy. But it will all come out in due time!”
Another: “what it amounts to , the adoption women did not do right by deana and the baby deana did not hear or see anyone for 6 or 7 weeks before the baby was born plus no one came to the hospital while deana was there or came to see the baby the baby was there for 14 days with no one but deana and family what would you do in that case deana was there with the baby for hours taking care of him feeding caring and lovin the baby its sad that the first adoption lawyer scared off the second, to the point they stopped having any contact with deana.”
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
Update: “A judge denied a request for a reduced bond from the Umatilla woman accused of adoption fraud at a first appearance hearing held at the Marion County Jail on Saturday morning.
A handcuffed Deana Marie Day, dressed in a red and white jail outfit, asked Judge Hale Stancil if he would consider lowering her $100,000 bond on the charges.
The 33-year-old Umatilla woman said the offenses she faced are similar to the one she was arrested for a week ago.
Stancil told Day, who said her attorney is Melanie Slaughter, that she faces 10 years in prison if convicted of the crimes. [Wow that is more time than adoptive parents get for killing their children.]
Slaughter, in a brief interview with the Star-Banner on Saturday, said Day and her family have contacted her, wanting her to be Day’s attorney.
With her bond unchanged, Day faces other charges, according to jail records.
Records show that Day was picked up at her Umatilla residence Thursday on two warrants, one for uttering a forged check, the second for grand theft. Both warrants are from Lake County.”
Judge refuses to lower bond in adoption fraud case
[Ocala.com 2/23/13 by Austin L. Miller]
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