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Woman May Have Abused
Kids in $2M Scam
August 1, 2007
By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer
 WEST
PALM BEACH, Fla. - A Florida woman accused of using aliases to adopt
11 New York children received as much as $2 million in child welfare
payments even as she starved, bound and abused them, police said
Tuesday.
Investigators initially believed
Judith Leekin, 62, had adopted nine children, but authorities in New
York said Tuesday that Leekin adopted 11 children in all from New
York City's foster care system between 1993 and 1996.
Judith Leekin mugshot
Authorities believe Leekin held the
adopted children like prisoners in her Port St. Lucie home, often
handcuffing them together and forcing them to soil themselves
because they weren't allowed to use the bathroom.
"It's abhorrent," said John B.
Mattingly, commissioner of the New York City Administration for
Children's Services.
Leekin remained jailed in lieu of
$4.5 million bail on 11 charges, including counts of aggravated
child abuse, false identification and witness tampering, as well as
four counts of aggravated abuse of a disabled adult.
Leekin's lawyer said his client
denies the allegations.
"She indicated that she loved these
children, that she took care of them," Mario Garcia said. "She
nurtured them and fed them."
According to the children's
services administration, Leekin used aliases to fraudulently adopt
the children and had been receiving welfare payments at different
addresses and bank accounts until her arrest in July.
Florida authorities said they
located a 19-year-old man Monday who was among the 11 adopted by
Leekin but had left the home two years ago. Police say Leekin was
still collecting payments from the New York agency for his care.
"He had similar stories, similar
scars and marks on his body from his wrists to his ankles where he
alleges he was also handcuffed and tied to other people," Port St.
Lucie Police spokesman Robert Vega said Tuesday.
Authorities were still trying to
locate an 18-year-old whom Leekin adopted from New York, Vega said.
Police believe Leekin received as
much as $2 million over the years from the New York child welfare
agency, he said.
Parents who adopt special needs
children in New York City can get as much as $55 a day until the
child turns 21.
"We are working with law
enforcement to provide them with all available records to aid in the
investigation," Mattingly said. "We are also doing everything
possible to see how this individual was apparently able to adopt
children using multiple false identities."
The children's services
administration noted that it began fingerprinting adults who adopted
children out of foster care in 1999 _ after Leekin's adoptions were
processed. The agency is searching its records from all adoption
agencies to root out any other fraudulent adoption cases, Mattingly
said.
The case came to light July 4 when
an 18-year-old woman was found wandering in a grocery store in St.
Petersburg, about 200 miles away from Leekin's home. The woman told
police Leekin had adopted her 13 years ago and abandoned her at the
store that day.
Investigators found eight other
children and handicapped adults, ranging in age from 15 to 27, in
Leekin's home. All had scars on their wrists, and some had burns.
None appeared to have more than a
fourth-grade education, not even the adults in their 20s. They told
authorities they had never seen a doctor or a dentist and all were
near starvation, police said.
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