Alabama Adoption Scam UPDATED
No details have been released regarding the theft.
“The Alabama Bureau of Investigation, a division of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, is investigating an adoption scam in east Alabama and seeks assistance from the public.
At the request of Lanett Police Department, ABI is leading the investigation with support from the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Agents arrested Brandy Renee Harsh on May 22 in Tallapoosa Co. in connection with the adoption scam and charged her with felony first-degree theft of property and two misdemeanor charges that are related to adoption. Harsh is being held in the Tallapoosa Co. Jail on bonds totaling $500,000.
The investigation is ongoing, and anyone who knows of individuals who were affected by this scam or who has information concerning a company called Angel Adoption Agency or the email address localadoptionhelp@yahoo.com may contact the ABI at 1-800-392-8011.”
ABI seeking public’s assistance in east Alabama adoption scam
[ABC3340 5/29/13 by Ben Culpepper]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
It sounds like Brandy used the name Angel Adoption Agency to confuse people with a legitimate adoption agency in Alabama called A Angel Adoptions. ( 
at the name to be listed first in the white pages )
Update: A Angel Adoptions has been fielding calls of confusion over the name of the faux agency adoption scam.
“An investigation into an adoption scam in east Alabama has caused headaches for the owner of a Helena agency with a similar name.
The Alabama Bureau of Investigation asked for information Wednesday about an adoption scam in Tallapoosa County involving a group claiming to be called Angel Adoption Agency.
Suzanne Peden owns A Angel Adoptions in Helena. She said she received a lot of phone calls and comments from people who thought her agency, which she started in 2001, is part of a scam.
A Angel Adoptions is not involved in the ABI case, Robyn Litchfield, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Public Safety, said Thursday.
A Angel Adoptions is the only licensed child-placing agency in the state with the word “angel” in its name, though there are agencies with similar names in other states. She said the website address for her business had to have “Alabama” in it because adoption agencies with “angel” in the name are so common.
“Words cannot express how devastated I am by the mere thought that anyone would think A Angel Adoptions would be connected to any adoption scam,” Peden said.
Peden said she is a licensed clinical social worker and has been in the adoption field since 1985. She also said she has never had any contact with Brandy Renee Harsh, the woman arrested in the ABI probe.
“I am very honest, ethical, law abiding, and professional in all of my adoption work and have tremendous compassion for all parties in the adoption process,” she said.”
[Alabama.com 5/30/13 by Jon Reed]
The regulation of corporate names is a wilderness that entraps many an unsuspecting adopted child, adoptive parent, expectant parent or pre-adoptive parent.
Keeping them all straight during the agency selection process is hard enough.
It’s truly amazing how they use the archetype of angels, goodness and light, hearts and flowers, baby Jesus and fairy tales to act as a facade that they are actually a corporation doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons at the wrong time for the wrong motives.
Someone wise to the confusion and similarity used it to her advantage. She got innovative, picked the first name in the yellow pages and created her own agency for her own birth for her own advantage until she got caught.
Isn’t it amazing that if a birthmother does the exact same thing that adoption agencies do it’s a horrible, unethical, criminal act? How dare she make a profit off of her “irresponsibility”!
Whereas adoption agencies not only make large profits from PAP “fees”, they almost NEVER face any legal consequences for any of their dubious practices.
If it’s wrong for birthmothers to do it, it’s just as wrong for adoption agencies to do it. Period.
The mother in this story is a lot easier pickings to prosecute. She’s in poverty, can afford legal representation and a public defender is overwhelmed and under-compensated.
Now, if a corporation does this, they have legal fees that they can take on their tax returns, they are insured for “errors and omissions” and the prosecutor’s office is sometimes working with the agency regularly on termination of parental rights cases.
It’s an equal wrong but it’s not equal in other areas. An individual doing an adoption scam is going to get treated much worse than a powerful corporation with this “do-gooder” image.
Correction, the individual mother CAN’T afford private legal representation in her circumstances. Proofreading, I did not catch that error.
About the real agency owner speaking out, I suppose she has a reputation to protect.
The bigger issue is adoption fraud and negligence is not all about one agency. It’s institutional.
The missed boat here is there are few safeguards out there for adoptive families, pregnant clients and adopted children.
If a rank amateur can do what Brandy did, then that’s a red flag someone in the industry needs to address during home study education classes. What goes on under the radar is dangerous and not in the best interest of children.
Keeping PAPs naive may not be the best idea. Expecting their legal counsel to warn them about the signs of a scam isn’t sufficient. This needs to be part of pre-adoptive home study preparation. Formal classes on how to interact with a potential maternity client with a social worker there to assist. Not just telling PAP clients to put their profile online and hope for the best.
Some PAPs are starry-eyed and even the hope that comes when they make contact with a pregnant woman is enough to cause a chain reaction of misery if it all falls apart. A smart agency is honest about the lack of available newborns, the number of PAPs who want newborns, other options and the legal process.
Prevention. Proactively addressing a known problem instead of reacting after the fact. Education. That boat needs to set sail and be made a new standard of care.
This ideal of adoption of a baby with umbilical cord still attached with the adoptive parents in the delivery room, not always wise.
That’s not modern adoption though. Step one is a home study. Then the agency sends their PAP clients out to go market themselves online without anyone at the rudder in a stormy sea. It’s a shipwreck waiting to happen.