Lawsuit: The Sans Pareil Center for Children & Family Services

“Six couples have sued a shuttered private adoption agency in The Woodlands and its operators, alleging that they bilked the couples out of thousands of dollars through misrepresentations and lies, including promising an exclusive match with an infant who had already been promised to others.

The Sans Pareil Center for Children & Family Services voluntarily closed its doors … in February after its director, Simone Swenson, agreed to suspend her operating license for six months. She said then that the closure had nothing to do with wrongdoing, but rather that she needed a break from false accusations made about her. She noted that she could reopen later.

The six couples – who live in Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, Missouri and Nebraska – are part of a growing number who have filed criminal complaints about the center with the Montgomery County sheriff. Each told a long story about being allegedly scammed by the adoption center.

The prospective parents in the lawsuit complained that Texas laws governing adoptions are lax, leaving many loopholes for abuse.

The suit was filed Friday in Harris County, where Swenson has a home.

Neither she nor her onetime attorney could be reached for comment Tuesday, and the center’s phone number has been disconnected.

Montgomery County prosecutor Nicole Czajkoski said she is weighing charges, but is waiting for the FBI to complete an investigation into the center. The FBI’s lead investigator, Latisha Brooks, has declined to comment on the case.

However, several of the couples in the lawsuit say they recently received a letter from the FBI stating that they could be the victims of a crime and that they were eligible for services such as counseling.

Could be many more

“It’s been a devastating experience,” said Annise Neidrich, a chiro­practor from Phelps County, Missouri.

“The more we look, the more families we find who were impacted by this,” she said. “I’ve spoken to 22 families, but only a dozen are willing to come file a complaint. There could be countless others.”

Many of these couples were “double matched” like her, Neidrich said.

She said she discovered that the infant promised to her had also been promised to a gay couple, who came to pick up the child on the day she was born.

Neidrich said the private adoption center told her that the birth mother had changed her mind, and was a runaway who had returned to her home state.

However, after the Chronicle published an article about the investigation into the center, Neidrich was contacted by the birth mother, who told her that she had been told Neidrich no longer wanted her baby but that the gay couple did.

“The mother had chosen us and didn’t want to go with someone else. So she refused to switch,” Neidrich said. “The hospital nurse has confirmed that the birth mom was abandoned there afterwards with her child. She had no money and stayed for three more days until she found a way to get home.”

Swenson has denied “double matching” any couples, and suggested these couples are just complaining because state laws allow birth mothers to change their minds after giving birth.

The lawsuit accuses the adoption center of “betraying the absolute trust” that the prospective adoptive parents had placed in it. It further accuses the adoption center of violating the Deceptive Trade Practices Act with its “negligent, careless and reckless disregard of duty” to the couples.

Mental anguish

In addition, the suit says, the center failed to maintain complete financial records documenting how the adoption fees were spent.

Each couple is asking the court for an award of $200,000 to $1 million for the thousands of dollars each lost in the adoption process and for their mental anguish.

Mary Jo Walker, a retired teacher whose husband is a rancher in Nebraska, described the emotional toll of the failed adoptions as equivalent to “late-term miscarriage.”[Oh please!]

“I had a whole nursery set up. I went through a depression,” Walker said.

At the same time, Ann O’Connell, who tried unsuccessfully to adopt from the same center as a single parent living in Houston, has sent a letter informing the center that she intends to sue, too.

Her civil suit was delayed after the center’s insurance company signaled that it might be willing to negotiate a settlement.

“But nothing’s happened at this point,” said her attorney, Will Colgin, of Rosenberg. “We are monitoring this other lawsuit to see how it plays out. But I can’t comment now on our plans.”

O’Connell has since adopted twins through another adoption center.

The attorney representing the six couples, Brody Ockander of Lincoln, Neb., said he has not heard any response from Swenson or anyone representing her.”

Couples sue over alleged adoption scam in The Woodlands[ Houston Chronicle 6/24/14 by Cindy Horswell]

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