AR - Rep. Harris rehomed his adopted daughter to man who sexually abused her

[believe09]

Another twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/KATVNews?origin...tw_p=embeddedtimeline&tw_w=346735798072274945

 

[believe09]

That's it-he bailed. His biggest concern, imo, was about establishing that he didnt keep the stipends. Other than that, crocodile tears.

 

[daisy7]

"We had no turning point so where was I going to go as a legislator if I was threatened with charges"

I am now hip deep in horse puckey.

The first 2 questions by reporters (I think) were questioning why he would believe this. Also, he didn't speak about the sexual abuse by Francis at all.

 

[liljim]

bad advice to only take three questions.

well if everything he said holds up it does explain most of the issues i had with the story.

i still dont understand when he claims to have felt like he had nobody to turn to for help once they were told they could face abandonment charges, the man is a state legislator.

and obviously the way that he handled the transfer of the girls to another family should not be the way that things are done, hopefully that gets addressed.

 

[believe09]

Back to the law-they abandoned the children. Done, that's it folks. He believes that none of it is his fault, it is DHS'. Now, DHS is on record in the published articles with their plan for adoptions, the steps and the fact that the 8 year old was taken back by DHS. So why wouldnt Rep Harris avail himself of that?

They believe, as do I, that Rep Harris knew that DHS would insist on intervening and making sure the family had taken all of the right steps. Example-the 8 year old. According to Rep Harris himself, once the 8 year old hurt a non bio child and was stockpiling rocks and thinking violent thoughts, DHS took her and brought her inpatient for treatment. In the articles, DHS states this is one of the steps they would offer. The 8 year old was not returned to the Harris home but to another family where she is thriving.

So, the Harris' decided, imo, that they would by pass intervention and toss the girls to an employee just fired by the Harris. Instead. Again, apparently not the Harris fault as they knew Stacy for 20 years.

OMG. :burn:

 

[MyBelle]

That's it-he bailed. His biggest concern, imo, was about establishing that he didnt keep the stipends. Other than that, crocodile tears.

Sounds like he placed full blame on the children and on DHS. I'm betting those stipends were endorsed with his signature. I also doubt a pediatrician's solution to dealing with homicidal children is to simply remove the sharp rocks from their stash.

JMO

 

[believe09]

bad advice to only take three questions.

well if everything he said holds up it does explain most of the issues i had with the story.

i still dont understand when he claims to have felt like he had nobody to turn to for help once they were told they could face abandonment charges, the man is a state legislator.

and obviously the way that he handled the transfer of the girls to another family should not be the way that things are done, hopefully that gets addressed.

What he said doesnt hold water. He knew the steps. He went through it with the 8 year old. Why wouldnt he believe the process would be the same? I think they told him if he just dumped the girls back into their care, he would be charged with abandonment. And he should have been. There is a process. He knew he was taking on two little girls who had been raped at impossibly young ages. Why wouldnt he just follow through?

 

[believe09]

Sounds like he placed full blame on the children and on DHS. I'm betting those stipends were endorsed with his signature. I also doubt a pediatrician's solution to dealing with homicidal children is to simply remove the sharp rocks from their stash.

JMO

Exactly. I bet the Pediatricians are thrilled to be dragged into this. On top of it all, the fact that he would use his wife's possible status as an abuse victim as a means of garnering sympathy.

OMG. No wonder the 3rd family wanted no contact with these lunatics.

 

[MyBelle]

Back to the law-they abandoned the children. Done, that's it folks. He believes that none of it is his fault, it is DHS'. Now, DHS is on record in the published articles with their plan for adoptions, the steps and the fact that the 8 year old was taken back by DHS. So why wouldnt Rep Harris avail himself of that?

They believe, as do I, that Rep Harris knew that DHS would insist on intervening and making sure the family had taken all of the right steps. Example-the 8 year old. According to Rep Harris himself, once the 8 year old hurt a non bio child and was stockpiling rocks and thinking violent thoughts, DHS took her and brought her inpatient for treatment. In the articles, DHS states this is one of the steps they would offer. The 8 year old was not returned to the Harris home but to another family where she is thriving.

So, the Harris' decided, imo, that they would by pass intervention and toss the girls to an employee just fired by the Harris. Instead. Again, apparently not the Harris fault as they knew Stacy for 20 years.

OMG. :burn:

I read the reporter's tweets and she mentioned that the Francis' had children from international adoptions. This rehome nonsense is another name for child trafficking. It is sickening.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

Exactly. I bet the Pediatricians are thrilled to be dragged into this. On top of it all, the fact that he would use his wife's possible status as an abuse victim as a means of garnering sympathy.

OMG. No wonder the 3rd family wanted no contact with these lunatics.

There needs to be an investigation into how the girls came to be placed with the Harris' in the first place. Did they do a proper investigation or did they skip it because of his position as a legislator. Where there is smoke, there is fire and I think we're just seeing the smoke.

JMO

 

[MsFacetious]

I wonder if the 3 sisters have any contact now?
I wonder if the family who adopted the oldest girl was given the chance to take the younger two?
Somehow I doubt both.

Ummm, according to Harris, the pedophile was vetted.

Harris said he was devastated and sickened by news of the arrest, which occurred April 4, more than two months after Francis had left employment at the school. Harris said Francis had worked previously in early childhood education for the Bentonville School District and with a Head Start program, plus he had been through intensive state scrutiny in the course of adopting children. He also was a youth pastor at a church. "He came with a pristine record," he said.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/04/21/former-pre-school-teacher-charged-with-rape

He is referring to him being vetted PREVIOUSLY.
The Pedophile had adopted children before and been approved to do so then.
He was not vetted specifically to take the children from Harris, only in the past.

 

[liljim]

What he said doesnt hold water. He knew the steps. He went through it with the 8 year old. Why wouldnt he believe the process would be the same? I think they told him if he just dumped the girls back into their care, he would be charged with abandonment. And he should have been. There is a process. He knew he was taking on two little girls who had been raped at impossibly young ages. Why wouldnt he just follow through?

i have not read every article - where is it said that two of the girls were raped prior to being adopted and that he knew of it? thanx.

as i said in another post we will need a lot more of the details now to come to any conclusions, his story still leaves some questions but the seriousness of the situation is now much more clear.

 

[MyBelle]

I wonder if the 3 sisters have any contact now?
I wonder if the family who adopted the oldest girl was given the chance to take the younger two?
Somehow I doubt both.



He is referring to him being vetted PREVIOUSLY.
The Pedophile had adopted children before and been approved to do so then.
He was not vetted specifically to take the children from Harris, only in the past.

My point was that Harris said the Francis' were vetted and yet failed to notify the state he was giving away two children. I don't know that Harris is telling the truth.

JMO

 

[liljim]

the main thing that is sticking with me now after continuing to think about it is this;

if something like this happened to someone else, and you presented Harris with the facts, i have no doubt he would be yelling from the dais "you cant do that! we cannot allow people to just pass on their adopted children to another family using their own best judgment!"

i could believe that he was just overwhelmed with the situation and acted poorly, but i dont blame anyone for being more suspicious than that either...
at any rate it would have been nice to hear him acknowledge today that he could have handled things better and is sorry for what happened to the girl.

 

[daisy7]

He took only three questions. He said he could prove that he had passed state subsidy checks to the Eric Francis family. Francis is serving a 40-year sentence for sexually abusing one of the children Harris placed in that family's care. Harris defended Francis, as he has to us before, as having a clean record. He wouldn't identify the DHS employee who allegedly threatened him. Harris was asked if he really believed DHS would charge him with abandonment had he tried to relinquish the children to the state. He said he believed what he'd been told.

Marsha Harris didn't speak.

Several of the things Harris said are at variance with what multiple sources have told Benji Hardy and Leslie Newell Peacock in the course of their reporting this story.

Benji will be in later with a fuller report. We'll also be posting a complete video.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlo...adoption-woes-on-department-of-human-services

 

[Hiandmighty]

I don't think there is anything at this point he could say that would have me think "o.k. That makes sense. I think he's clean and did the right thing by the children."

Nope. Not buying it at all.

 

[MyBelle]

He took only three questions. He said he could prove that he had passed state subsidy checks to the Eric Francis family. Francis is serving a 40-year sentence for sexually abusing one of the children Harris placed in that family's care. Harris defended Francis, as he has to us before, as having a clean record. He wouldn't identify the DHS employee who allegedly threatened him. Harris was asked if he really believed DHS would charge him with abandonment had he tried to relinquish the children to the state. He said he believed what he'd been told.

Marsha Harris didn't speak.

Several of the things Harris said are at variance with what multiple sources have told Benji Hardy and Leslie Newell Peacock in the course of their reporting this story.

Benji will be in later with a fuller report. We'll also be posting a complete video.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlo...adoption-woes-on-department-of-human-services

He took only three questions because that's what his PR counsel told him to do. Evidently they also helpfully wrote his answers before the questions were even asked. I'd like to know how that jerk was able to adopt those little girls in the first place.

JMO

 

[Morag]

Children are so vulnerable. The majority of children who are abused and mistreated are born to the people who are doing the abusing and mistreating. And there's no vetting at all for kids like that.

This is an ugly case. Why didn't the Harris couple consult the lawyer who handled the adoption for them? They are liars or worse.

 

[Curiosum]

What he said doesnt hold water. He knew the steps. He went through it with the 8 year old. Why wouldnt he believe the process would be the same? I think they told him if he just dumped the girls back into their care, he would be charged with abandonment. And he should have been. There is a process. He knew he was taking on two little girls who had been raped at impossibly young ages. Why wouldnt he just follow through?

It sounds like the eight year old was removed before they finalized the adoption when she was still a foster placement. DHS wasn't in a position to pursue abandonment of the eight year old at that time because he wasn't her legal parent. Once he adopted the younger two he did become their legal parents and then abandonment would be considered if he disrupted. From my experience as a pediatrician and dealing with children in foster care in five different states (but not AR) the fact that DHS removed the eight year old, left the younger two girls with the Harris family, and then allowed the adoptions to be separated leads me to believe that there is likely some real truth to what Harris has stated about the girls. I have seen CP/FS more commonly try to barter with a family who has a younger sibling that is thriving in their home and whomthey would like to adopt by threatening that they must also take the older siblings that have just bounced out of a different placement or lose the baby they have had since birth. Perhaps DHS was just showing good integrity with the Harris family but my guess is that they were actually relieved to not have to find a placement for the younger two as well (and they certainly didn't waste any time with getting the adoption finalized).

As I've said elsewhere on this thread I don't condone rehoming without oversight from DHS and the family court system but I do think that we need to do a better job of providing support to parents of children in crisis. I think DHS needs to develop an protocol for evaluating adoption disruptions that is focused on the best interests of the children but but those interests above the safety of all others in the home. These protocols should also be designed to be supportive more than punitive.

 

[Hiandmighty]

Ayone else wondering of he could be a really crafty pedophile who found a way to have kids for the picking? To be passed around to whoever/whatever........?