GUILTY FL - Judith Leekin for abusing 9 disabled people, adoption fraud, Port St Lucie, 2007

New Posts

S

sherri79

Former Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2006
Messages
3,181
Reaction score
13
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/07/20/m1c_SLARREST_0720.html

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 62-year-old woman who police say held four malnourished teenagers and five mentally-handicapped adults in her home, at times binding them in handcuffs and zip-ties, has turned herself into authorities.
Judith Leekin of 114 S.W. Hawthorne Circle now faces five counts of aggravated child abuse, one count of tampering with a witness and one count of possession of a fictitious driver license. Leekin, who turned herself in Wednesday, is being held at the St. Lucie County Jail in lieu of $435,000 bail.Although police could not say how long the alleged abuse went on, records indicate that it may have stretched back at least eight years. In 1999, a similar Department of Children and Families investigation involving Leekin and the same four children was opened and then closed, after Leekin left the area to avoid investigators, police said.
============
more @ link.
 
Another abuser that's slipped through the cracks.
This nonhuman should be hung by her toenails until death.
She's permanently marred those left in her care. Sadly they won't be adopted because of their age. :(
 
If there's a special place in hell for child abusers/rapists/murderers, then there's got to be an even more special place in hell for those that abuse the handicapped.

This news makes me so sick and angry at the same time. Let me at her. :furious: :behindbar :furious:
 
philamena said:
Another abuser that's slipped through the cracks.
This nonhuman should be hung by her toenails until death.
She's permanently marred those left in her care. Sadly they won't be adopted because of their age. :(
Click to expand...

I agree with you, philamena. Toenail by toenail.

If I had the time and the money, I'd take these kids in so quick. I hope someone helps these extra special people out.
 
I feel the same way Taximom. The story brought tears to my eyes.
 
The authorities aren't even sure who this woman is or how the kids came to be in this witch's care. She must have been collecting checks on the 9 people and never taking proper care of them.
 
When they first found this woman and the teenagers why did they leave to go get someone to do medical exams on the kids? Didn't they have sense enough to know that if no one stayed there to watch them that she would grab them and run! And of course she did.

She must have kicked the 18 yr old out because she had turned 18 and she would no longer receive money for her. If LE or CPS would run that woman's latest address through child welfare or Social Security they would probably find out who the kids and the adults are because you know she was getting money from someone for all of them. She didn't have them because she is a nice person. Maybe they don't know the names of the kids or adults but that address is in the system somewhere.

That woman looks meaner than a snake. Glad that she turned herself in. Her attorney gave her some good advice.

In my state there are laws against abusing the handicapped in any way.
 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291455,00.html
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — They were often handcuffed, tethered together with plastic ties and allowed to soil themselves, investigators say. They had scars on their wrists. Some had burns.
None appeared to have more than a fourth-grade education, not even the adults in their 20s. All were starving.
In all, nine teenagers and young adults were held like prisoners in Judith Leekin's home in what appeared to be a decades-long scheme to line her pockets with the government payments she received for adopting and raising them, police say.
===========
more @ link.
 
sherri79 said:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291455,00.html
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — They were often handcuffed, tethered together with plastic ties and allowed to soil themselves, investigators say. They had scars on their wrists. Some had burns.
None appeared to have more than a fourth-grade education, not even the adults in their 20s. All were starving.
In all, nine teenagers and young adults were held like prisoners in Judith Leekin's home in what appeared to be a decades-long scheme to line her pockets with the government payments she received for adopting and raising them, police say.
===========
more @ link.
Click to expand...

:banghead: Hopefully this woman will suffer immeasurable suffering for eternity.
:( May God watch over and protect those she harmed.
 
sherri79 said:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291455,00.html
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — They were often handcuffed, tethered together with plastic ties and allowed to soil themselves, investigators say. They had scars on their wrists. Some had burns.
None appeared to have more than a fourth-grade education, not even the adults in their 20s. All were starving.
In all, nine teenagers and young adults were held like prisoners in Judith Leekin's home in what appeared to be a decades-long scheme to line her pockets with the government payments she received for adopting and raising them, police say.
===========
more @ link.
Click to expand...


She would have been getting about 800$ per month each for the kids from the adoption subsidy and then checks for each handicapped adult. Nine checks coming in and not spending a dime on their care is alot of money. Disgusting.
 
The state allowed this monster to adopt those kids? Didn't anyone ever see the condition they were in all of that time? Does our system work....heck no!
 
Taximom said:
I agree with you, philamena. Toenail by toenail.

If I had the time and the money, I'd take these kids in so quick. I hope someone helps these extra special people out.
Click to expand...

:clap: :clap: :clap: Excellent post Taximom and me too! I very much hope that the children and adults will be much better taken care of, such a shame, they could have been adopted earlier by people that really wanted them and would have loved them - so unfair! The article said she couldve been making 180,000 a year - and not spending a penny on the kids. Some of these kids have been with her and treated like this for years! I just cant fathom how anyone could do that, im not a violent person but this "woman" - i just want to beat the living daylights out of her!
 
jacobean said:
:clap: :clap: :clap: Excellent post Taximom and me too! I very much hope that the children and adults will be much better taken care of, such a shame, they could have been adopted earlier by people that really wanted them and would have loved them - so unfair! The article said she couldve been making 180,000 a year - and not spending a penny on the kids. Some of these kids have been with her and treated like this for years! I just cant fathom how anyone could do that, im not a violent person but this "woman" - i just want to beat the living daylights out of her!
Click to expand...


Since none of the kids had over a fourth grade education, she probably took enough care of them at first and had them in elementary school until the adoptions went through, then moved to another place. Too bad the schools didn't cross check, follow up, and years of follow ups from social workers even if she did move to another state. I guess after she legally adopted, they were hers and no one checked up. Then when she was turned in for abuse once, she just moved elsewhere and they didn't trace her to the other state. Too bad that happened to the kids. They could have had happy lives with good decent people who really wanted to help and love children. My ex husband and his wife adopted one of their foster girls and she couldn't have a better dad and mom and grandmom.
 
txsvicki said:
The authorities aren't even sure who this woman is or how the kids came to be in this witch's care. She must have been collecting checks on the 9 people and never taking proper care of them.
Click to expand...

This article says she may have been getting as much as $180,000 a year to care for them and that she adopted them out of the NY foster care system using 5 aliases over a number of years:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291455,00.html
 
txsvicki said:
Since none of the kids had over a fourth grade education, she probably took enough care of them at first and had them in elementary school until the adoptions went through, then moved to another place. Too bad the schools didn't cross check, follow up, and years of follow ups from social workers even if she did move to another state. I guess after she legally adopted, they were hers and no one checked up. Then when she was turned in for abuse once, she just moved elsewhere and they didn't trace her to the other state. Too bad that happened to the kids. They could have had happy lives with good decent people who really wanted to help and love children. My ex husband and his wife adopted one of their foster girls and she couldn't have a better dad and mom and grandmom.
Click to expand...


The article I just linked said that none of them received a formal education after she had them. NY State has no requirement that children adopted out of their foster care system by NY residents....so no follow-up most likely. They were just glad to be rid of them.
 
This women makes me physically ill.

Did no one ever go into her house?? No Family? No Neighbors??

No one ever looked into her background when she adopted these children to see that she had NINE!!!
What about a home check before permitting the adoptions??
Not only should she spend the rest of her pathetic waste of using up air space of a life rotting in a dank moldy rat infested hole of a prison but those who should have been responsible in placing these children safely should be joining her.
Is there no accountability???
 
Amraann said:
This women makes me physically ill.

Did no one ever go into her house?? No Family? No Neighbors??

No one ever looked into her background when she adopted these children to see that she had NINE!!!
What about a home check before permitting the adoptions??
Not only should she spend the rest of her pathetic waste of using up air space of a life rotting in a dank moldy rat infested hole of a prison but those who should have been responsible in placing these children safely should be joining her.
Is there no accountability???
Click to expand...

She probably had the children hide if anyone came over, like she did when the police came the first time. They weren't allowed to go outside the house.

I hope there will be some accountability now.
 
By PAUL QUINLAN

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

PORT ST. LUCIE — The nine people alleged to have been starved and imprisoned in the home of a Port St. Lucie woman were among 11 teenagers she adopted between 1993 and 1996 from New York City's foster care system, from which she collected as much as $2 million to care for them, Port St. Lucie police said today.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/07/31/0731SLleekin.html

Wow...I wonder what the maximum sentence is for this crime. Those poor kids!
 
NEW YORK (May 20) - A woman pleaded guilty to fraud Tuesday for using fake names to adopt 11 disabled children and rake in more than $1 million in subsidies, while she restrained the children and failed to send them to school.

Judith Leekin, 63, admitted that she used plastic ties to restrain the children and prevent them from getting out of bed, and that she sent officials phony school report cards to qualify for the adoption subsidies. She agreed to forfeit the $1.68 million in subsidies she collected over nearly two decades.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/woman-pleads-guilty-in-adoption-scam/20080521150509990001
 
Port St. Lucie woman accused of abusing 11 adopted children sentenced to 20 years
FORT PIERCE — A Port St. Lucie woman who forced her adopted children and young adults, some with mental and physical disabilities, to sleep on a storage room floor, will spend most, if not all, of the next 20 years sleeping in a prison cell.
Judith Leekin, 63, pleaded no contest late Wednesday afternoon to four counts of aggravated child abuse and four counts of aggravated abuse of disabled adults.
Circuit Judge Robert Belanger, calling Leekin’s actions “reprehensible,” sentenced her to 20 years in prison, the maximum term called for under a negotiated plea. Florida law requires Leekin to serve at least 85 percent of her 20-year term.
Belanger allowed roughly the first half of Leekin’s sentence to run concurrently with a 10-year, 10-month term she received in New York City last year for defrauding that state’s adoption system out of $1.68 million that was supposed to go toward taking care of the adoptees.
http://tcpalm.com/news/2009/feb/04/port-st-lucie-woman-accused-abusing-11-adopted-chi/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 138 more.
Total: 4,332 (members: 139, guests: 4,193)

Online statistics

Members online
139
Guests online
4,193
Total visitors
4,332
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
591,853
Messages
17,960,049
Members
228,624
Latest member
Laayla
Back
Top