How Could You? Hall of Shame-Lynette and Claud Atkins
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 Dinwiddie County, Virginia, a 2015 case has come to light. Adoptive parents Lynette and Claud Atkins “were recently indicted for abuse, malicious wounding and multiple child injury charges last week for allegedly abusing their 14 and 16-year-old adopted sons for the past five years.
56-year-old Lynette Atkins, the teen’s legal adoptive parent, and her husband Claud Atkins, 47, are accused of physically abusing their adopted sons. The couple reportedly whipped the boys with homehold items.
“Including water hose that went to the washing machine, extension chords, electric chords, that sort of thing. Always used on the parts of the body that are covered with clothes,” said Ann Baskervill, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Dinwiddie County.
Bakersvill says the couple forced the boys to stay in the garage and sleep with the dogs.
“There’s a blanket and a pillow on the garage floor. No heat, no electricity, no running water. In order to use the bathroom, had to knock and get permission to come inside, so usually would go outside. Really treated as sub-human,” she said.
Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said that throughout the time period the boy was staying in the garage, the boy was only allowed to eat Ramen noodles. The teen’s diet was not limited due to financial strain, Baskervill said, because other members in the household were eating nutritious meals that the teen wasn’t allowed to though.
The couple did allow the boy inside the home each morning to be groomed and bathed before school to avoid anyone noticing.
The abuse began five years ago, according to Baskervill.
The Atkins were originally charged with two counts of cruelty and injury to children for abuse that allegedly happened in the first half of 2015, between January and May. On July 21, they were indicted on additional abuse charges, along with the malicious wounding and assault charges for offenses as far back as 2009, Baskervill said.
“They had plenty of resources income of both parents plus adoption subsidies,” said Bakersvill.
Lynette Atkins is a civilian employee at Fort Lee and works at the headquarters for the base’s military police, according to Baskervill. Claud Atkins works full-time for UPS and also has a part-time job at Fort Pickett.
Meanwhile, several neighbors say they were shocked to hear about the charges.
“I do not believe that it’s child abuse at all,” said neighbor and friend Kathy Basaldua. “Yes it’s hard to be a parent, but they would never do anything to hurt there. They love them, it’s obvious, I just don’t get it.”
Both Lynette and Claud Atkins have been released on bond. They have a trial date set for October 28 in Dinwiddie Circuit Court.”
Dinwiddie County couple indicted for allegedly abusing 2 adopted sons for five years [WRIC 7/31/15 ]
“A Dinwiddie County couple who had been accused of inflicting yearslong physical abuse on their adopted teenage sons, including whippings with electrical cords, pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor counts Wednesday in a case that defense attorneys said would have been difficult to prove in court.
Lynette Atkins and her husband, Claud Atkins, were indicted in July on multiple felony child injury, abuse and malicious wounding charges for alleged offenses that authorities said were committed over five years against Lynette Atkins’ two adopted sons, ages 14 and 16.
An informal plea agreement was reached Wednesday in Dinwiddie Circuit Court that had both defendants plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and assault and battery of a family member. Eight other felony charges against each defendant were withdrawn by the prosecution.
“On the defense side, during the course of our investigations, we felt we would be able to refute many of the allegations as factually incorrect,” said Mary Kay Martin, who represented Lynette Atkins. “We had a number of third-party witnesses who would have contradicted some of what these young guys claimed had happened.”
“I think all parties felt that the evidence would clearly establish the four misdemeanors that each one of them pled to,” Martin added. “It was just a good compromise.”
Defense attorney Matthew Stewart, who represented Claud Atkins, agreed that several defense witnesses “would have refuted a lot of what was alleged.”
Stewart said many of the allegations one of the young men described to Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill couldn’t have been backed up in court.
“I think there were some real problems with everything that the young man was going to say,” he said. “I think the commonwealth would have had a difficult time proving all of that.”
Baskervill said the case involved “multiple spheres of perspective” among the participants, and those positions and interpretations of what occurred were not shared among all the parties involved, herself included. Wednesday’s resolution to the case was an attempt to “balance all those spheres” fairly and compassionately, she said, while protecting the two victims from having to testify about the abuse they suffered.
“Testifying in court, particularly on life’s most horrific moments, is not something anyone wants to do, particularly anyone who is young, vulnerable, traumatized and mortified,” Baskervill said.
“Describing difficult events is not easy to do during testimony,” Baskervill added. “Things that are clear and compelling in private and comfortable conversation are not always going to present that way in court, and particularly not under vigorous and highly competent cross-examination.”
In addition, there was no corroborating evidence to support or confirm the victims’ testimony had the case gone to trial, the prosecutor said.
In July, Baskervill said the worst physical violence against the teens included beatings with extension or electrical cords and a water hose from the washing machine to areas of the boys’ bodies covered by clothes, especially their bottoms. She said the boys also reported being forced to stay in the garage, primarily the 14-year-old, who “spent the majority of 2015 sleeping in the garage with the dogs.”
The teen said he was forced to sleep on the floor of a garage that lacked heating, air conditioning or running water, and if he had to use the restroom, he was required to knock on the door of the house and seek permission to enter. During periods of banishment to the garage, the boy said, he was allowed to eat only Ramen noodles.
At the time of their arrests, Lynette Atkins, 56, was a civilian employee at Fort Lee working at the base’s provost marshal’s office, headquarters for the base’s military police. Claud Atkins, 47, was a full-time UPS employee who also worked part time at Fort Pickett.
Lynette Atkins was the teens’ legal adoptive parent; her husband assisted with parental duties.
Both defendants face up to 48 months in jail on their four convictions when they are sentenced Feb. 5.”
Dinwiddie couple plead guilty to reduced counts in abuse of adopted sons [Richmond Times-Dispatch 10/28/15 by Mark Boes]
“Lynette Jones Atkins, 57, and her husband Claud Atkins, 47, were sentenced Friday in Dinwiddie Circuit Court but will not serve anymore time in jail stemming on charges of delinquency or abuse of a minor and assault or battery of a family or household member under the age of 18.
The couple were sentenced to 12 months with 12 months suspended on all charges. The sentences were suspended for five years and the couple is not allowed to have any contact with their 14-year-old and 16-year-old children until they turn 18, at which time they are allowed to decide whether or not they want to have contact with the Atkins’. Prior to the sentencing, the couple spent 13 days in jail.[13 DAYS for physical abuse for the past 5 years? 
WTF?]
The five years suspended means that the Atkins’ must be on good behavior for five years. Otherwise the suspended time of 48 months, which is the 12 months for each sentence, could be revoked as active time.
“Ordinarily in misdemeanor cases, any suspended sentence will be suspended for only 12 months or 3 years – rarely more than 3 years,” said Ann Cabell Baskervill, Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney. “I sought the 5-year period to protect both boys for as long as possible – it keeps the defendants under at least some court supervision for the most possible time, making them accountable for as long as possible.”
The good behavior requirement includes that they cannot violate any laws, nor can they have contact with the child victims. According to Baskervill, these provisions were the Commonwealth’s number one goal.
“If we had not gotten the no-contact provisions, then there would have to be a civil determination of terminating parental rights,” she said.
This would involve a hearing that couldn’t and wouldn’t involve a prosecutor. It also would require testimony and evidence from the children
“Thus demanding of them the trauma of testifying against the parents whom they both love and fear, and also subjecting them to cross-examination,” Baskerville [sic]said. “Although I would not be involved in such a proceeding, I knew that such a proceeding would need to take place if we did not get no-contact provisions enacted today in the criminal cases.”
Baskervill said she wanted to do everything possible to protect and show compassion to the child victims to the best of her ability. She said she believes that child abuse should be discussed and evaluated more in order to help prosecutors promote more intense investigation and evidence-gathering.
“Even criminal conduct that is only at a misdemeanor level does destroy children and families,” she added.
The Atkins’ were both indicted on July 21 by a Grand Jury on charges that included five counts of child cruelty, one count of malicious wounding, one count of child abuse, two counts of child neglect, and one count of assault and battery of a family member. The Atkins’ were accused of abusing both of their adopted sons.
The boys were allegedly locked in the garage of their home, deprived of normal meals, which resorted to them living off of ramen noodles, and didn’t have access to air conditioning, heat, or running water.
This was a form of punishment that the parents gave to the boys for misbehavior.The treatment of these two boys is said to have begun when they were nine and 10 years old, but got worse when the family moved to their current residence on the … in North Dinwiddie in 2013. A water hose and a cord were both allegedly used by Mr. Atkins in the beatings, while Mrs. Atkins was allegedly known to use her hands.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Baskervill said that the 14-year-old went to the MCV campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was examined by a nurse who would’ve testified the “looping” mark on his body, which would’ve been made by a hose or cord.
According to the defense attorneys on the case, though, two different adults living in the household said that the 14-year-old had a reputation for untruthfulness in the community and began stealing to the point where the Atkins’ had to put locks on their bedroom doors so he wouldn’t continue stealing electronics from their room. The defense also said that a third-party claimed that the 14-year-old took part in self-mutilation.
In an October hearing, the Atkins’ both plead guilty on four charges each of delinquency or abuse of a minor and assault or battery of a family or household member under the age of 18.Prior to their sentencing, Mr. and Mrs. Atkins both apologized for their actions and Mrs. Atkins began to shed some tears.
The judge presiding over the case stated that abuse is an outcome of one’s own desire and he did not believe the Atkins’ did anything out of their own desires.
After exiting the courtroom, the Atkins’ hugged and cried with family members and friends who attended the sentencing.”
Couple sentenced for charges against adopted children [The Progress-Index 3/9/16 by Alex Trihias]
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