NY woman gets almost 11 years for adoption fraud

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-16 09:24

NEW YORK -- A woman from Trinidad who lied to adopt 11 disabled children whom authorities say she abused while she raked in more than US$1 million in subsidies was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 11 years in prison.

This 2007 file photo provided by the St. Lucie County, Fla., Sheriff's Department shows Judith Leekin, 62, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., who bilked a child welfare agency out of more than US$1 million in adoption subsidies while allegedly abusing 11 disabled children. [Agencies]

US District Judge Richard M. Berman said Judith Leekin engaged in "a heartless, dangerous money-driven scheme" when she used fake names and lies about the children to defraud social service agencies in New York City and New York state.

Leekin, 63, has been accused of treating the children like prisoners, subjecting them to beatings and handcuffs while they stayed in a locked room without food, depriving them of medical and dental care and not sending them to school. Authorities said the children were so physically and emotionally abused they can never recover.

Leekin looked down and repeatedly dabbed her eyes and nose with tissues as Berman ordered her to serve 10 years and 10 months, nearly three years above the maximum penalty she had agreed to in a plea deal with prosecutors.

The judge also ordered Leekin to forfeit US$1.68 million to benefit the children.

"This fraud turns the philosophy of adoption and the need to provide long-term care to children - so important to our social services system ... it turns that system on its head," he said.

Before Leekin was sentenced, she sobbed and apologized for committing wire and mail fraud and promised to surrender all her assets. She pleaded guilty in May.

"I love my children," she said, "and I miss them."

The children, now ages 16 to 28, suffer from a variety of severe mental and physical disabilities, including autism and Down syndrome. Leekin began adopting them in 1988, when she lived in New York City. A decade later, she moved to Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Florida authorities have charged her with aggravated child abuse and aggravated abuse of disabled adults, and she could face as much as 120 years in prison if she is convicted of those and other charges.

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