Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / December 2005

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051225-9999-1m25adopt.html

Fraud charges dropped for adoption facilitator

Fight over twins drew international attention
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 25, 2005

The British press called them the "Internet twins."

Five years ago, two premature babies were put up for adoption on
various Web sites through an El Cajon adoption firm.

What followed was a tug of war over the girls between an adoptive
British couple and relatives of a California couple who also had
adopted them. The spat ignited worldwide debate over the legality and
morality of using the Internet for adoptions.

International investigations ensued. Fleet Street called the would-be
parents from Wales "the most hated couple in Britain." Eventually, the
FBI raided the El Cajon home from which the adoption business, A Caring
Heart, operated.

Tina Johnson, the woman behind A Caring Heart, was charged with wire
fraud and mail fraud in San Diego federal court in 2002.

Prosecutors abruptly dropped the charges this month as the case was
headed for trial.

"Our evidence was not as strong" as needed to take the case forward,
federal prosecutor Randy K. Jones said last week. "Certain things had
happened that made our case weaker."

He wouldn't elaborate, nor would the FBI.

"There were significant problems with some of the witnesses," including
inconsistent statements and locating people to testify, said FBI
spokeswoman Jan Caldwell.

"While we're disappointed, it certainly doesn't preclude the
possibility of a future investigation if warranted," Caldwell said.

Johnson, 39, didn't return a phone call to her home outside Seattle,
where she now lives.

Her defense lawyer, Ezekiel Cortez, wouldn't say why the charges were
dropped.

"I'm very grateful that the government saw that the best resolution for
this case was to drop these charges," Cortez said. "I believe they made
a just and fair decision."

In court papers, he had accused authorities of pursuing a biased and
flawed investigation against Johnson.

Cortez said Johnson was targeted unfairly because she is black, a
lesbian, and legally blind.

He also said the FBI agent investigating the case had a "personal
animus" against Johnson, citing e-mails between the agent and another
birth mother who put her son up for adoption with Johnson.

Prosecutor Jones rejected that argument and said that was not the
reason the case was dropped.

In court papers, he refers to Johnson as Tawana Dancy-Forte.

Johnson said in a court document filed in Seattle she was born Tawana
Dancy, but, at 28, decided to change her name to Tina Johnson.

She began her adoption business as early as 1998 and operated it in
Oregon and California, the prosecutor said in court papers. Johnson
charged prospective sets of parents $4,000 to $13,000 in non-refundable
fees, Jones said.

In most cases, after receiving the fees, Johnson told the prospective
parents that the birth mothers had changed their minds and the children
were no longer available, according to the allegations.

She would "string" them along, charging more fees, and eventually cut
off communication, Jones said. She was charged with illegally
collecting more than $26,000 from adoptive parents.

The case that caught international attention involved two girls, Kiara
and Keyara, who weighed about two pounds each when born prematurely to
Tranda Wecker of St. Louis on June 26, 2000.

Before giving birth, Wecker contacted Johnson and told her she wanted
to give up the girls and Johnson began shopping around for parents,
Jones said.

Johnson offered the twins to four couples, sometimes simultaneously
telling more than one couple that Wecker had selected them, the
prosecutor said.

One set of parents backed out when told by a lawyer that Johnson's
insistence on an $8,500 payment was a sign "this must be a scam," Jones
said.

The British couple, Alan and Judith Kilshaw, paid Johnson $12,500 in
August 2000 in an effort to adopt another child, the prosecutor said.

That deal fell through when they learned the birth mother wasn't
pregnant, Jones said. Johnson told the Kilshaws she would find other
children.

In October 2000, Richard and Victoria Allen, of the San Bernardino
County city of Highland, paid Johnson $6,000 to arrange the adoption of
the Wecker twins, plus $1,133 for Wecker to fly out with the girls, the
prosecutor said.

When Wecker left the girls with them, the Allens thought the adoption
was final, Jones said.

They didn't know Johnson was still in touch with the Kilshaws, telling
them she still had children available and they should fly to California
to get them, the prosecutor said.

The Allens allowed the birth mother to visit the girls. In late
November 2000, Wecker spent three days with the twins in what she told
the Allens would be her last visit.

But Wecker, working with Johnson, brought the twins to San Diego, where
she then turned them over to the Kilshaws, the prosecutor said.

When Johnson told the Highland couple that the birth mother no longer
wanted them to have the girls, they sent relatives to a downtown San
Diego hotel where the exchange with the Kilshaws was taking place,
Jones said.

One of the relatives "physically tried to take the twins from the
Kilshaws," Jones said. Police were summoned and, after consulting with
child-welfare authorities, let the Kilshaws keep the girls.

The Kilshaws then took the girls with them to the United Kingdom.

But that wasn't the end of the story. Upset over what happened, they
told their story of American "baby selling" to British reporters.

The story took off.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair weighed in - "It is absolutely
deplorable that children are traded in this way," he said - and a
British court found the adoption improper and a "likelihood of future
harm" if the couple kept the twins.

The court battles left the Kilshaws bankrupt and they turned to reality
television shows in an effort to make money. They insist they want to
adopt again.

"I wish I'd never bothered paying anyone anything," Judith Kilshaw told
the British Broadcasting Corp. on learning that charges against Johnson
were being dropped. "We've been left with nothing and have no closure."

The Allens couldn't be reached last week. They gave up their efforts to
adopt the girls. After being charged with molesting two baby sitters,
Richard Allen pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 2002.

The twins have spent most of their five years in foster care.

Wecker, who has remarried and now goes by the name Tranda Conley, is
trying to regain custody.

"Everybody is not going to agree with me getting them back," she told
MSNBC's Rita Cosby last month. "But it doesn't matter what they think."