How Could You? Hall of Shame-Korean Adoptive Child Hyunsu O’Callaghan case-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Damascus, Maryland, 36-year-old adoptive father Brian O’Callaghan was arrested on Sunday, February 16 on charges of first- degree murder and child abuse resulting in  his 3-year-old adopted son’s, Hyunsu O’Callaghan’s, death.

He was charged with “fracturing the boy’s skull and causing hemorrhaging in his eyes – injuries that ultimately killed the boy.”

“On Tuesday, a Montgomery County judge ordered O’Callaghan held without bond during a bail hearing.

According to court records, 3-year-old Hyunsu O’Callaghan, who the family calls Madoc, died of his injuries Feb. 3 at Children’s National Medical Center in D.C. An autopsy found multiple bruises on the boy’s body. His skull was fractured with bleeding in the front and back of the brain. Fluid from the brain had also seeped into the boy’s sinus cavity and spine.

The autopsy determined the toddler’s death was “homicide by multiple blunt impact injuries,” court records say.

Investigators found out about the boy’s injuries on Feb. 2 when they were called to Children’s.

O’Callaghan told Montgomery County detectives that his son slipped in the shower a few days earlier. The boy had played and eaten lunch with his adoptive father and brother the next day. Later O’Callaghan says he found the boy unresponsive after he had taken a several- hour nap. He found a pinkish stain on the sheets and mucus coming from the boy’s nose.

After changing the sheets and cleaning off the still unresponsive boy, O’Callaghan took Hyunsu to the hospital the evening of Feb. 1. He was transferred to Children’s National Medical Center where staff were concerned that the boy could be “brain dead” and conducted neurological tests, court records say.

Hospital staff told police that the brain trauma and hemorrhaging in the eyes indicated the boy had been beaten, according to court documents.

The boy’s adoptive mother was out of town and O’Callaghan had sole custody of Hyunsu at the time, court documents say.

The couple had adopted the boy from Korea and he joined the family last fall and bonded with his new mother, court records say.

However, O’Callaghan told investigators that he had not bonded with his adopted son. He became the boy’s primary caretaker in January when his wife returned to work.

O’Callaghan was a decorated Marine veteran who served in Iraq. More recently, he worked as a division chief for the National Security Agency.

“This was a terrible, terrible tragedy and not a crime,” says Steven McCool, O’Callaghan’s defense attorney. “Ultimately, when all the evidence is presented in this case, we’re all going to know the truth.”

In court, prosecutors described Hyunsu’s injuries as being “from head to toe.” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Hyunsu’s injuries were not caused by a typical child’s fall.

Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call police at 240-773- 5070.”

 

Warrant and charging documents for Brian OCallaghan

Dad charged with murder of 3-year-old, adopted son

[WTOP 2/18/14 By Andrew Mollenbeck, Amanda Iacone and Colleen Kelleher ]

“”The injuries to this child were catastrophic injuries,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy. “I think the evidence supports the charges that were brought.”

Investigators were called to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington on February 2, and police say they learned that the boy’s injuries, including trauma to the brain, indicated he had been beaten. The boy died the next day and police say an autopsy determined the manner of death was homicide by multiple blunt impact injuries.

Court documents reveal the injuries to the little boy included a fractured skill, which a medical examiner claims could not have come from a fall as O’Callaghan said was the cause to police.

After a judge order, O’Callaghan was held without bond as his wife, parents, and in-laws left the courthouse without comment.”

“The lawyer also called O’Callaghan a hero, showing a photo in a book about Iraq which he said shows him surrounded by happy children in Baghdad. He claims O’Callaghan even helped free Private Jessica Lynch from captivitiy.

But State’s Attorney John McCarthy responded:

“Sadly, I often stand here when good people have done terrible things.””

[WJLA 2/18/14 by Brian Bell]
“It is a background that made allegations revealed in Montgomery County District Court on Tuesday seem all the more stunning: Alone with the boy — with his wife out of town, his other son in a different part of the house — O’Callaghan repeatedly struck the child, hitting him so hard the boy died two days later.

“An absolutely horrific crime on an absolutely innocent young victim,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Fenton, listing injuries to the boy’s head, neck and back. “Basically this child was beaten to death from head to toe.”

Based in part on her assertions, District Judge William Simmons ordered O’Callaghan held without bond. The hearing was the first in the case, one that O’Callaghan’s attorney said was not what police and prosecutors were making it out to be.

O’Callaghan’s wife, Jennifer, his parents and his in-laws came to court. “He has the unwavering support of his family,” McCool said. “They know he is incapable of committing the crimes alleged.”

O’Callaghan, 36, said little during the hearing as his image was piped in via a video feed from the county jail.

He attended the University of Northern Colorado and, by 1997, was serving in the Marine Reserve, according to McCool and military officials. He served in Kosovo. In 2003, while deployed in Iraq, he received a medal after being engaged in a firefight that helped lead to the rescue of captured soldier Jessica Lynch, according to military records and McCool.

At some point, O’Callaghan went to work for the NSA, where he is chief of the Korea Division in the analysis and production section and holds a top-secret intelligence clearance, McCool said.

At home, he and his wife had one son, who is now 7. They worked through Catholic Charities to qualify to adopt a child with special needs — which is how they adopted Hyunsu from Korea in October. The family called him Madoc, an Irish addition to his name.

For three months, Jennifer O’Callaghan was the boy’s primary caretaker, according to police. In January, Brian O’Callaghan went on leave to care for Madoc, while his wife went back to work. On Jan. 31, she went to New Jersey, and he and their sons stayed at their home in Damascus, authorities said.

It is here that the accounts about what happened differ substantially.

According to Fenton, the prosecutor, some time on the night of Jan. 31 or into the next day, O’Callaghan beat Madoc.

From there, O’Callaghan didn’t render aid, Fenton said. Instead, he moved his injured son from a bed to a blanket and cleaned bodily fluids from inside the home — finally taking Madoc to a hospital in Germantown. The child was in full arrest, Fenton said.

The boy died Feb. 3, police said. An autopsy confirmed injuries consistent with being beaten, Fenton said. Among them: a fracture at the base of skull, bruises to the forehead, swelling of the brain and wounds to other parts of the body. There was also “blunt impact to the back from a linear and triangular shaped object,” Fenton said in court.

Detectives questioned O’Callaghan. He said that on the evening of Jan. 31, he helped Hyunsu take a shower because the child didn’t like having water hit him.

“During the shower, Hyunsu was crying and upset,” Detective Mike Carin wrote in court papers, summarizing his conversation with O’Callaghan. “After the shower had ended, Hyunsu slipped in the bathtub, falling backwards. As he fell, he hit his shoulder. Brian consoled him and he went to bed without incident.”

The next day, O’Callaghan took his sons to breakfast, followed by a trip to a swim center, according to Carin’s summary. The three eventually returned home, O’Callaghan told the detectives, and Hyunsu took a nap.

At 4 p.m., O’Callaghan went to check on his younger son and saw pink stains on the bedding and mucus coming from the boy’s nose, Carin wrote. O’Callaghan told detectives that he changed the sheets, returned an hour later to check on the boy and found his condition had worsened. O’Callaghan told the detectives that the boy was unresponsive and that he washed him off in a bathtub, eventually taking him to the hospital. “Brian O’Callaghan could not provide an explanation” for the injuries, Carin wrote.

“These facts are strong, these facts are horrific, and what this man did to this child is murder,” Fenton said in court.

Detectives got a warrant for O’Callaghan’s arrest Feb. 12 but allowed him to attend his son’s memorial service, according to McCool.

In court Tuesday, McCool said that medical tests performed at the hospital appear to contradict the autopsy. “There was a full CT scan done of Madoc, and there were no skull fractures,” he said.

William Rose, O’Callaghan’s grandfather, said the memorial service was moving. The pastor reminded attendees that the boy’s organs had gone to save people’s lives.

“I find it impossible to believe that he’s been indicted for murder because he’s worked so hard to get this baby,” Rose said. “He was so loving with him. He’s been so wonderful with his other child. I’ve never seen him do anything that would make me believe he is capable of that.””‘

Montgomery County man is charged with killing his 3-year-old adopted son[The Washington Post 2/18/14 By Dan Morse and Dana Hedgpeth,and Jennifer Jenkins]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “According to the Hankyoreh’s own investigation, it was understood that Hyun-su was one of the 62 adoptees sent to abroad in 2013 through Holt Children’s Services. Holt responded cautiously to the news, saying, “There have been some inaccurate stories in the US media and there has not yet been any legal ruling. We don’t want to rush to a conclusion.

We’ve been told by the US organizations that the autopsy results will only be available in March.” Holt Children’s Services also said, “It might be possible for the investigators to misinterpret the Mongolian spot – which he had since birth – as a kind of wound.

Also, Hyun-su has always suffered from hydrocephalus and cerebral atrophy, which means it’s possible that this wasn’t a homicide”. They also emphasized that Mr. and Mrs. O’Callaghan had visited Seoul a total of three times before adopting Hyun-su [Whoop-de-do!]and the couple were willing to accept Hyun-su’s language developmental disorder. Holt says that these acts are evidence of the couple’s affection for Hyun-su.” [Oh please!]

Adoptive father accused of brutal murder of Korean child [The Hankyoreh 2/21/14 by Jeon Jeong-yun]

Update 2: “A Damascus dad was indicted Thursday on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of his 3-year-old adopted son.

A grand jury determined there’s enough evidence to move forward with charges against Brian P. O’Callaghan, 36, whose son Hyunsu died Fed. 3 at Children’s National Medical Center.

The state medical examiner’s office ruled the boy’s death a homicide by multiple blunt impact injuries.

Court records provide different accounts of what led to the death of Hyunsu, the little boy the O’Callaghan family adopted from Korea.

O’Callaghan told detectives that he was caring for Hyunsu and his biological son on Jan. 31, according to charging documents filed in Montgomery County District Court.

According to O’Callaghan’s account, Hyunsu slipped and fell backward in the tub, hitting his shoulder. He said the boy needed help showering because Hyunsu did not like the water hitting him.

The boy got upset and began crying during the shower, resulting in the slip and fall. O’Callaghan said he consoled his son and put him to bed without incident, according to the charging documents.

The next day, O’Callaghan and the boys went to breakfast and then went the Germantown Swim Center and Hyunsu took a nap when they got home.

O’Callaghan told police that he checked on the boy and found him unresponsive, with mucus on his nose and bodily fluids staining the bedding. He was also vomiting.

O’Callaghan drove the boy to a Germantown emergency room.

Hyunsu was eventually transferred to Children’s National Medical Center, where he died.

Doctors told police that O’Callaghan wasn’t able to provide an explanation for what caused the severe injuries they found.

Medical tests determined the boy had bleeding in the brain and hemorrhaging in his eyes, findings doctors said support the boy had been recently beaten, according to charging documents.

An autopsy found a skull fracture and bleeding on the front and back of the brain, with multiple impacts to the head. The autopsy found “multiple contusions consistent with impact trauma,” according to police.

O’Callaghan was arrested on Feb. 16 and is being held without bail.

The indictment isn’t a finding of guilt, but is instead a formal charge.

O’Callaghan’s attorney was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

First-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office said in an email.”

Damascus dad indicted on murder, child abuse charges in son’s death[The Gazette 3/13/14 by Tiffany Arnold]

Update 3: “Shannon Heit, 33, trembled with rage as she recalled the moment two months ago when she heard that a Korean boy had been killed by his adoptive father in the U.S.

Heit, a freelance translator in Seoul, is not related to the boy. But she said that, as a Korean-American adoptee herself, she felt a deep connection to him, and a greater pain.

Hyunsu O’Callaghan, 3, died on Feb. 3 at a children’s hospital in Maryland, just four months after he was adopted by an American couple.

Brian O’Callaghan, the boy’s father, claimed that the boy slipped while taking a shower, but an autopsy revealed a fractured skull, bruises to the forehead, swelling of the brain and multiple contusions consistent with impact trauma. Authorities in the U.S. said the evidence showed that the boy had been “basically beaten from head to toe” by his adoptive father.

O’Callaghan was arrested and indicted last month with first-degree murder and child abuse for the death of his own son.

“To me it’s just like really sad and heartbreaking … even just thinking about the last minutes that he would have spent not even being able to express himself,” she said, adding that the boy, who was disabled, may not have been able to communicate with any of his family in the U.S.

Out of despair, she took to the streets to tell people about how Hyunsu died and the organizations she thought should be held responsible.

Heit has been standing outside offices of those organizations, from the National Assembly to the adoption agency that arranged Hyunsu’s inter-country adoption, holding a picture of the boy and sign saying, “Sorry we couldn’t protect you.”

“Hyunsu is not the only one. There are more to protect,” she said.

Heit is one of several Korean adoptees raising concerns about Korea’s inter-country adoption system, which they say fails to protect young adoptees’ basic human rights.

Jane Jeong Trenka and Ross Oke, both adoptees themselves, have also been assertive in raising the issue. The two currently lead Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea, or TRACK, a Seoul-based advocacy group for adoptees’ rights. The group has worked with other human rights groups, including Save The Children, to ask the Ministry of Health and Welfare last month to open an investigation into Hyunsu’s case.

They urged the government to ask itself whether it had done enough to find him a Korean family before approving his overseas adoption.

Adoptee groups say the intercountry adoption of children like Hyunsu, who was born prematurely with hydrocephalus, must be stopped.

“It is hard enough for a child with special needs to adapt to that kind of particular environment. To do that to a child who needs special care is devastating. That is not at the child’s best interest at all,” Heit said.

Holt, one of the largest adoption agencies here, has also been under fire for sending Hyunsu overseas, even though it knew that his foster mom in Korea wanted to keep him.

Holt simply ignored my request, saying it was illegal to adopt a foster child. But I later learned that was a lie,” Hyunsu’s foster mother said in a TV interview. Holt countered that she was not “willing” to adopt him and didn’t go through the official procedures to adopt him.

Adoptee and children’s groups such as TRACK and Save The Children blamed Holt, arguing that Hyunsu could still be alive if the adoption agency had carried out a thorough background check of the family in the U.S. before he was adopted.

Activists suggested that the agency was trying to send him overseas because the money it receives for arranging international adoptions was higher than for domestic adoptions. Adoptive parents from overseas pay about $20,000 per child to agencies for arranging the process, they claimed.

Holt declined to comment on the matter.

Adoption in past, present

In the last 60 years, more than 200,000 Korean babies have been sent overseas for adoption. Korea’s international adoption began the early 1950s just after the Korean War, when the devastated country was not able to feed and raise war orphans.

But even years after the country achieved rapid economic development, the number of children sent for overseas adoption continued to grow.

The number peaked in 1986, with 8,680 adoptees leaving the country that year.

The reason that overseas adoptions were much more common than domestic adoptions for so long was because of the country’s deeply entrenched Confucian values, which puts emphasis on a pure bloodline, said Helen Roh, social welfare professor at Soongsil University. The practice of stigmatizing unwed mothers or those who raise children born out of wedlock has also played a big role in keeping the rate of overseas adoption high, she added.

“They were basically forced to give up their kids for adoption because of economic difficulties and social stigma,” Roh said. About 90 percent of Korean adoptees are born to unwed mothers, according to recent data.

The number of Korean children adopted overseas has steadily declined, falling to 755 in 2012. The Welfare Ministry expects the number to drop below 300 this year.

Roh said that the rapid decrease in the number of children sent overseas has resulted from the enactment of the Special Adoption Law in 2012.

The law requires the birth registration of babies so that they cannot be put on the waiting list of both overseas and domestic adoptions easily without sufficient information and a background check. The law also stipulates that adoptive parents must get approval from a court.

The law was passed to bring the country into line with The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, an international treaty that urges member countries to keep babies with their birth parents within their country of origin.

The Korean government signed the international treaty last year and is waiting for parliamentary approval next year.

The legal revision signifies a radical change in the Korean government’s policy toward adoption practices.

“Before 2012, all adoption processes were carried out easily by adoption agencies under the connivance of the government. I could say that the government was effectively encouraging the agencies to send children overseas,” Roh said.

“But the law forced the government to step in and reset its policy goal with the aim of upholding children’s human rights,” she said.

The government has not made an official announcement, but with Hyunsu’s case and protests from adoptee groups, the Welfare Ministry is reportedly planning on a wide range of changes to its adoption policy, according to an official who declined to be named.

Recent reports also say that the Welfare Ministry will soon obligate adoption agencies to carry out one year of post-adoption services, such as home visits and reports.

Scars unhealed

Thousands of adult adoptees have returned to Korea in search of their identities and birth families. What they have often found is that they were sent abroad like “a piece of luggage,” as Heit describes it.

In the past, babies were often taken to adoption agencies without registrations that contain basic information about them and their birthparents. That made it easier for adoption agencies to send children overseas for many years, but it made it nearly impossible for adoptees to find their birth families in Korea. The success rate of Korean adoptees finding their mothers in Korea is 2.7 percent.

Heit claims that her records were falsified by Holt.

Calling herself a “paper orphan,” she said the agency had made her an orphan on paper in order to make the adoption process easier and less time-consuming.

“The reason why my record was falsified was in order to send me without my mother’s consent,” said Heit, who eventually found her birth mother after Korean media publicized her story.

“The adoption agencies should have said ‘no, we cannot accept these children without consent from the mother.’ But they didn’t.

“Instead they got rid of the information without my mother’s consent. That is a human rights violation. That is child trafficking.”

Activists for adoptee rights and welfare experts say that adoption should be a last resort.

“It is now time that we no longer depend solely on adoption, but search for family preservation solutions,” TRACK’s Ross Oke said in a recent TV interview.

Adoption creates traumatic experiences for children and the pain continues throughout their lives.

“It is not like studying abroad. There is so much lost when you are adopted,” Heit said.

“I was cut out from my Korean family. I was cut out from my Korean background. Even though they were no longer there, and I didn’t know anything about it, it still hurts, constant pain,” she said, comparing her experience to losing a limb.

To prevent another case like Hyunsu’s, experts say the government should increase financial support to unwed mothers so that they can keep their children.

The government offers 70,000 won per month to unwed moms who are in poverty. The cash grant is even lower than the 150,000 won and free health care that adoptive parents get.

“I think this is ridiculous. The system is forcing moms to separate from their kids,” Roh said.”

Toddler’s murder reopens old wounds for Korean adoptees[The Korea Herald 4/6/14 by Cho Chung-un , Lee Hyun-jeong and Suh Ye-seul]

Update 4: “Holt Children’s Service being inspected for its practice of sending adoptees in and outside of Korea, after a 3-year-old sent to the U.S. through the agency was allegedly beaten to death by his adoptive father.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday that it has been inspecting the adoption agency since Monday over its adoption procedures, and the commission fees it receives from foster parents for adoption.

Holt authorities said that inspectors were looking into its financial statements.

“The toddler’s death triggered the inspection. We will take corrective measures against Holt if any illegalities are found,” a ministry official said. She declined to elaborate.

The boy, Hyunsu O’Callaghan, was born in Korea and adopted by Brian O’Callaghan, a Maryland-based high-ranking National Security Agency agent. Maryland Police said O’Callaghan brutally beat Hyunsu and the boy died of injuries on Feb. 3, some 100 days after he met his new father. The man was charged with first-degree murder and child abuse.

The ministry’s inspection is reportedly focused on the agency’s commissions. After the tragedy went public, civic groups here have claimed there is a loophole in the regulation of Korea’s adoption agencies suggesting, “They sell babies to foreign countries for commissions which are higher than for domestic adoptions.”

They pointed out adoption agencies sending babies to overseas parents have been unregulated in the setting of commission fees. In Hyunsu’s case, Holt and Catholic Charities USA, a U.S.-based agency, received some $41,650.

That is because of the government’s policy of promoting domestic adoptions. The Act on Adoption also states that agencies should pursue domestic adoption before they seek overseas parents.

The ministry set the maximum commission for a domestic adoption at 2.7 million won. And it provides the full amount to agencies to promote adoptions inside the country.

However, when it comes to sending a baby overseas, there is no rule about the maximum amount and the government does not offer any subsidies. Agencies are provided only with some 480,000 won per baby every month for fostering costs.

Kim Byung-soo at Holt said, “The money we receive for arranging an overseas adoption is aimed at making ends meet.”

According to him, overseas adoption costs a lot more than domestic adoption because most such toddlers stay longer than two years at the agency.

“We have no option but to ask for help for foster parents,” he said, adding the agency has been suffering chronic deficits.

“The inspection is an opportunity to clear Holt’s tarnished reputation,” he said.

Suh Yeo-joung at the Save the Children Korea, one of the civic groups that requested the inspection, said, “The ministry will likely look into the agreement between Holt and Catholic Charities, in which the amount was set.”

“There has been a study over the cost paid to agencies in 2001. However, more studies are required over how much is appropriate in adoption charges,” she said.”

Holt under inspection after adoptee’s death[Korea Times 4/9/14 by Nam Hyun-woo]

Update 5:   TRACK!

http://www.adoptionjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/OCallaghan-court-docs.pdf says that on 8/15/14 there will be a motions Hearing. And on 9/8/14 there will be a 7-day trial.

Update 6:  TRACK

http://www.adoptionjustice.com/updated-court-dates-brian-ocallaghan/ says that on 10/3/14 there is a pretrial and on 12/1/14 there is a seven day trial.

Update 7: Margie Perscheid for her tracking of this case. From http://thirdmom.blogspot.com/2014/12/status-hearing-in-kim-hyunsu-murder-case.html :

“DECEMBER 8, 2014