Shame on Adoption Center of Choice and James Webb for all of their scandolous moves. It makes me sick how they are not only scamming birthfathers, birthmothers, but also the adoptive couples. It's sick and wrong that they are charging these couples $9800 for THEIR marketing and advertising cost, when that money is going directly back into their pocket books. I am sure there are plenty other questionable costs. I hope the state of Utah audits every single adoption agency and closes them down who aren't operating ethically.
Great job Brooke Adams for shedding light on the corruption that is occuring in the Utah Adoption Industry. Keep it up!
Utah adoption saga: New questions as fight continues
Courts • Utah adoptive parents want order to return S.
Carolina man’s child stayed.
Courtesy photo Leah Frei, now 21 months old, has lived with her adoptive parents since birth. Her biological father, who calls her Teleah, is waging a legal battle to get her back.
The Salt Lake Tribune has learned the Utah
adoption agency that arranged for a married father’s child to be given up at
birth is under scrutiny by state licensing officials and the adoptive parents
have acted on their pledge to try to block the toddler’s return to her dad.
Ken Stettler, licensing director for the Utah Department
of Health and Human Services, told the Tribune that the Adoption Center of
Choice has operated under a corrective action plan since September, when its
license was extended but not renewed. The action was taken because of
documentation deficiencies in some case files, Stettler said.
The extension expires at the end of December, the
deadline for the agency to come into compliance. But allegations in the adoption
case have raised new questions and prompted additional review, Stettler
said.
Meanwhile, a new legal battle is forming over the
child.
Attorney Larry Jenkins, who now represents Jared and
Kristi Frei, confirmed Wednesday they have filed a motion asking 4th District
Judge Darold J. McDade to stay his order dismissing their adoption petition and
requiring the couple to transition Terry Achane’s now 21-month old daughter to
him by mid-January. Jenkins also said he is reviewing the case in anticipation
of appealing McDade’s decision.
In a statement released to KUTV on Monday, the Freis
claim Achane abandoned his wife before their child’s birth and has done nothing
to build a relationship with the now 21-month-old girl.
“We are deeply saddened by the court’s decision to give
the child back to a father she does not know at all,” said the Freis, who have
four biological children and two adopted children, including Leah. “We believe
that the court made serious legal errors in his decision and will address these
concerns with the Utah Court of Appeals.”
Achane, who calls his daughter “Teleah,” told The Tribune
he did not attempt to send gifts or other support once he learned the Freis had
his daughter because, given her age and the circumstances, he felt those
gestures were unlikely to reach her or make sense to her. Achane, 31, has had
two three-hour visits with her during trips to Utah for legal hearings, but
otherwise the Freis have not allowed contact.
But Mark Wiser, Achane’s attorney, said the Freis have
not responded to repeated attempts by Achane to connect with his daughter since
the Nov. 20 ruling.
Achane “has called numerous times only to have the phone
go to voice mail, or is busy,” Wiser said. “He still can’t talk with his
daughter. He even left his phone number and if the Freis are out on the
weekends, they won’t return the call.”
Achane and Tira Bland married in 2009 in Texas and
learned in June 2010 she was pregnant and that the baby was due in mid-March of
2011. The couple had marital problems but were still together in January 2011
when Achane accepted a position as a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson in South
Carolina. He left in mid-month to set up a home and report for duty, expecting
to return to Texas for the baby’s birth.
Less than two weeks later, Bland decided to pursue an
adoption; she came to Utah in mid-February and stopped communicating with
Achane. Bland, who claimed her husband had abandoned her, gave birth on March 1,
2011.
Achane says he had no idea what had become of Bland or
his baby until Bland contacted him in June and informed him she had placed the
child for adoption. Achane immediately contacted The Adoption Center of Choice
and began asserting his parental rights as the child’s father. He has since
divorced Bland.
The Freis were “duped themselves, but eventually they
found out what happened and they had to make a choice — do the right thing and
return the child to the legal father or keep the child,” said Scott Wiser,
Mark’s son and part of Achane’s legal team. “It is a human tragedy. There are
victims all around, but two wrongs don’t make a right.”
On its website, the center claims to have facilitated
about 1,400 successful adoptions since its founding in 1995. According to its
corporate registration filing, it has done business under eight other names in
the past, including A Heart of Gold Adoptions, An All American Adoption Agency,
A Bridge Adoption Services and A Adoption with Love.
In 2005, the center incorporated as a nonprofit
organization under state law, though it does not have federal tax exempt status
from the Internal Revenue Service.
James C. Webb, who is currently listed as the only
representative — director, officer, president, and registered agent — for the
adoption center, did not return a call from The Tribune. His office referred the
newspaper to Jenkins, who also represents the adoption agency.
Jenkins confirmed the business was set up as a nonprofit
under Utah law.
In its incorporation filing, the center listed its
purpose as a child placing agency; providing humanitarian relief and education
to underprivileged children worldwide; sheltering children who do not have
homes, families or both; assisting adoptive parents; and soliciting
contributions.
The center, based in American Fork, has facilitated at
least five other controversial adoptions that ended up in rulings by the Utah
Supreme Court or Utah Court of Appeals. All of those adoptions involved
unmarried fathers, unlike the current case. Each of those fathers — Victor
Johnson, Frank Osborne, Buddy Pruitt, Cody O’Dea and Bryn Ayers — were
unsuccessful in stopping adoptions of their biological children, mostly based on
findings they acted too late under Utah law to protect their parental
rights.
The center received harsh criticism in the ruling by
McDade, who rebuked the agency for its failure to return Achane’s daughter to
him once he realized what had happened to her.
McDade also questioned the agency’s requirement that the
Freis pay an “advertising fee” of $9,800 to a marketing company, in addition to
other adoption and pregnancy-related expenses it collected.
That business, Blue Sky Choice Marketing, was founded and
is operated by Webb, who is the only principal listed for the firm in its
corporate registration. According to that document, the marketing company is
located in Cedar City and has been in business about two years.
While holding itself out as a nonprofit, the agency also
requires clients to pay the advertising fee to Webb’s other company, the judge
noted.
brooke@sltrib.com
Twitter: @Brooke4Trib
—
Agency participated in reality show
Earlier this year, the Adoption Center of Choice was
featured on an hour-long special on TLC called “Birth Moms,” a reality show that
chronicled experiences of three unwed, pregnant women who were living in homes
provided by the center and struggling with their decisions to pursue
adoption.
James C. Webb, the agency’s executive director, told
The Salt Lake Tribune as part of a report on the show that five of his seven
daughters are adopted. Of birth moms, he said: “Here they are doing this amazing
thing — giving a gift of life to a child and a family. And it’s not an easy
thing. I can’t even imagine how challenging it is.”
Webb said that of the 150 to 200 women who seek
the agency’s services each year, about 100 decide to move forward with an
adoption. On a blog at its website, a company representative says adoption fees
can run from $22,000 to $30,000.
—
Donation funds for both sides
Jared and Kristi Frei are soliciting contributions
for their legal fund on their blog at
http://frei-adoption.com/Frei/Leah.html.
Numerous people also have asked how to contribute to
Terry Achane’s legal fund. Contributions may be sent to The Law Offices of Wiser
and Wiser, 2825 E. Cottonwood Parkway, Ste. 500, Salt Lake City, Utah,
84121.
© 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune
The Freis are not Teleah's "adoptive" parents. The adoption was not approved, and Teleah was ordered to be returned to her father. They are legally, at most, her "temporary" or "foster" family, at worst her captors who insist on dragging out this farcical "knappers keepers/losers weepers." SSgt Achane is her *father* - no prefix or qualifier is necessary.
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