IN - Couple charged with abandonment of adopted child after legally changing her age, Sept 2019 #2 *not guilty*

[squareandrabbet]

The school swears she was an adult? source please. That neighbour seems very eccentric, not to mention about 100 years old. I don't think she'll be considered the best judge on the matter compared to all the professionals on the witness list, somehow.

Well, the school did swear.

The problem is, it was a CYA-swear, repeating the same corporate BS you get from everyone involved: if a court ruled that, blah de blah, she was 18; and we don't take anyone younger than 18; of course she was 18 (read: "we didn't break the rules"), QED.

It's nonsensical cowardly sophistry that relies upon "what the last person said"; and assumes that the word of "the last person" is sacrosanct, because, basically, courts don't make mistakes (and here is where the Innocence Project and countless others stop for a great big belly-deep horselaugh). These people are not spending 2 seconds looking at the affidavit or court records. Their/the corporate entity's attorneys may be; but they would only turn around and say, "Spokesperson, when asked, you keep repeating that all you did was follow the rules of what a court said and did."

Also, how do we know the neighbor can see? I thought for decades that my grandmother "could see"; now we don't know how long she in fact had cataracts, because after the double cataract surgery she looked at herself in a mirror and said "Yuck! Where did that wrinkly old lady come from?" (Before anyone thinks I'm automatically being ageist, my podiatrist told me the same thing about his own father and cataract surgeries - the father came out of it emergency-texting him, quavering with indignation about what "they must have done to him" when he was in the hospital, because he looks so... OLD!!)

My doc was in stitches. He said "Dad, sorry to break it to you, but you have looked like that about as long as I have known you. YOU just didn't know you looked like that, because you couldn't see."

 

[Meloni88]

I don't think we can really fault them for believing she was an adult if her parents told them she had a disorder that made her appear young and produced ID confirming an adult birth date when they were registering her there. There are conditions and combinations of conditions that can make someone look and behave much younger and it wouldnt be their place to challenge Kristine or Natalia on it even if their instincts were telling them something was off. Could be considered disability discrimination or something. I don't think they have the right to demand medical records beyond vaccination history.

 

[ioethe]

Part is Kristine’s defence is that N was verbally precocious, and she is certainly very articulate in her videos and the Dr Phil interview. She’s obviously bright. An place of education might easily mistake her age if her intellectual development was forward. They wouldn’t be looking at anything else.

 

[Amonet]

In listening to the DuPaul's interview, my heart breaks that they could not adopt Natalia. She would have had people who understood her struggles and would have made sure she had sufficient life skills to survive when the time came for her to move out. This child has missed so many opportunities. She appears to be a great kid now and I can't help but think how much more enriched her life would have been.


From an Inside Edition interview with the DuPauls:

"If me or my wife tried to push someone into an electric fence, it wouldn't go that well," Vincent said. "Imagine someone who's struggling to walk pushing an average size woman into a fence. It's ludicrous."

The Barnetts reportedly had Natalia's birth year legally changed from 2003 to 1989 two years after they adopted her. The Barnetts then moved as a family to Canada, and when they left Natalia in Indiana, they prepaid the rent on her apartment for one year and signed her up for social welfare programs, Michael said. After being charged with felony neglect of a dependent, the Barnetts pleaded not guilty.

Even though the Barnetts say they set Natalia up in her own apartment, the DePauls said that wasn't enough, explaining that she would need a home with a custom layout to accommodate for her dwarfism.

Couple Who Hoped to Adopt Ukrainian Orphan 'Shocked' People Think She's an Adult Posing as Child

From some of the accounts, it seems to me that N wasn't even with the Barnetts in their home for very long? If the age change happened only 2-3 years later, and MB said on one of his video interviews that before the apartment they got for N when they moved to Canada that they'd had N living in a different apartment for a year before that point, where they visited N once or twice a week and had a nurse come out to see N to check on her.

 

[Amonet]

Yes, the elderly neighbour and school that both sware she is /was an adult

I think the school's statement was very carefully crafted to simply say that she qualified for the school as she was legally an adult. I think it was more of a legal CYA statement than anything else.

 

[Meloni88]

From some of the accounts, it seems to me that N wasn't even with the Barnetts in their home for very long? If the age change happened only 2-3 years later, and MB said on one of his video interviews that before the apartment they got for N when they moved to Canada that they'd had N living in a different apartment for a year before that point, where they visited N once or twice a week and had a nurse come out to see N to check on her.

Certainly seems that way. They got her in May 2010 (or so I've heard) but we know they adopted her in November 2010. They were gone by July 2013. And she was in an assisted living apartment for at least a year prior according to them and before the age change it sounds like they were constantly hospitalizing her and trying to make her someone else's problem. They physically ostracized her early on I think.

 

[MissA2]

Haha. The Barnetts lawyer isn’t the sharpest tool
in the shed
LINK
Prosecutors want to know how much $ they made because the Barnett’s have appeared on Daily Mail, Morning Today, Dr Oz, Imside Edition etc.
This is the kicker (emphasis mine)

”Similarly, Michael Barnett's attorney, Terrance Kinnard, filed a motion on Sept. 25, asking prosecutors what they know about "any offer made by any person or entity to any person known to the state to provide movie, book, television or radio rights to any story or subject in this matter."

LOL

He refiled the motion Friday, Nov. 8, because the state had not responded.

The state is now responding!

 

[MissA2]

Part is Kristine’s defence is that N was verbally precocious, and she is certainly very articulate in her videos and the Dr Phil interview. She’s obviously bright. An place of education might easily mistake her age if her intellectual development was forward. They wouldn’t be looking at anything else.

Yep! Says the woman who raised a genius child

 

[MissA2]

Well, the school did swear.

The problem is, it was a CYA-swear, repeating the same corporate BS you get from everyone involved: if a court ruled that, blah de blah, she was 18; and we don't take anyone younger than 18; of course she was 18 (read: "we didn't break the rules"), QED.

It's nonsensical cowardly sophistry that relies upon "what the last person said"; and assumes that the word of "the last person" is sacrosanct, because, basically, courts don't make mistakes (and here is where the Innocence Project and countless others stop for a great big belly-deep horselaugh). These people are not spending 2 seconds looking at the affidavit or court records. Their/the corporate entity's attorneys may be; but they would only turn around and say, "Spokesperson, when asked, you keep repeating that all you did was follow the rules of what a court said and did."

Also, how do we know the neighbor can see? I thought for decades that my grandmother "could see"; now we don't know how long she in fact had cataracts, because after the double cataract surgery she looked at herself in a mirror and said "Yuck! Where did that wrinkly old lady come from?" (Before anyone thinks I'm automatically being ageist, my podiatrist told me the same thing about his own father and cataract surgeries - the father came out of it emergency-texting him, quavering with indignation about what "they must have done to him" when he was in the hospital, because he looks so... OLD!!)

My doc was in stitches. He said "Dad, sorry to break it to you, but you have looked like that about as long as I have known you. YOU just didn't know you looked like that, because you couldn't see."

School called authorities.

 

[Meloni88]

Haha. The Barnetts lawyer isn’t the sharpest tool
in the shed
LINK
Prosecutors want to know how much $ they made because the Barnett’s have appeared on Daily Mail, Morning Today, Dr Oz, Imside Edition etc.
This is the kicker (emphasis mine)


LOL

The state is now responding!

I cant make heads or tails of this. What is his lawyer asking for?

 

[cherrymeg]

I think the school's statement was very carefully crafted to simply say that she qualified for the school as she was legally an adult. I think it was more of a legal CYA statement than anything else.

Weren't they using N's SSI money to pay for the apartment?

 

[ioethe]

Haha. The Barnetts lawyer isn’t the sharpest tool
in the shed
LINK
Prosecutors want to know how much $ they made because the Barnett’s have appeared on Daily Mail, Morning Today, Dr Oz, Imside Edition etc.
This is the kicker (emphasis mine)


LOL

The state is now responding!

Your link doesn't work for me so here's another one just in case;

Attorneys: How much did Michael Barnett, Kristine Barnett and Natalia Barnett get paid for interviews?

"Additionally, prosecutors have noted in court that Kristine Barnett provided copies of Natalia Grace Barnett's medical documents to an Indianapolis television station. "

I'm glad someone is taking notice of that, because it's a gross invasion of privacy.

"In the state's second request for discovery filed Friday, prosecutors asked the Barnetts to provide the name of the Ukrainian or Russian person whom the Barnetts had speak with Natalia Grace Barnett."

I have grave doubts that that person actually exists.

 

[Meloni88]

Your link doesn't work for me so here's another one just in case;

Attorneys: How much did Michael Barnett, Kristine Barnett and Natalia Barnett get paid for interviews?

"Additionally, prosecutors have noted in court that Kristine Barnett provided copies of Natalia Grace Barnett's medical documents to an Indianapolis television station. "

I'm glad someone is taking notice of that, because it's a gross invasion of privacy.

"In the state's second request for discovery filed Friday, prosecutors asked the Barnetts to provide the name of the Ukrainian or Russian person whom the Barnetts had speak with Natalia Grace Barnett."

I have grave doubts that that person actually exists.

Same, I have big doubts. Although they said that when this person talked to her Natalia got very upset which I took it to mean that hearing the language brought back unpleasant memories for her. They are such insensitive a-holes that possibility would never occur to them. But I kind of feel like the state is trolling them a bit there by requesting the person's name. I mean, they know she is from Ukraine. That will be stringently documented and verified that she was brought over in 2008. So it's not like they are taking this contention that she isn't really Ukrainian seriously.

 

[ioethe]

If I recall correctly, Natalia comes from the Russian speaking part of Ukraine anyway.

 

[Meloni88]

If I recall correctly, Natalia comes from the Russian speaking part of Ukraine anyway.

Yep, Mykolaiv. It's like 65% exclusively Russian speaking, 7% exclusively Ukrainian and the remainder are bilingual.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Similarly, Michael Barnett's attorney, Terrance Kinnard, filed a motion on Sept. 25, asking prosecutors what they know about "any offer made by any person or entity to any person known to the state to provide movie, book, television or radio rights to any story or subject in this matter."

That question makes a lot of sense, as the Barnetts have clearly been going out of their way to present everything as dramatically as possible to attract the attention of Hollywood.

 

[Meloni88]

I still don't understand why he asked that. Is he asking the state to tell him whether or not Natalia has been asked about film rights? I'm lost...

 

[ioethe]

The first article I saw about this had a comment from the mother of the woman who found Natalia originally. She said something along the lines of “watch this, this will be a Lifetime movie.”

I wonder if Michael has taken this literally.

 

[MissA2]

So what will happen to Michael’s primary care doctor who wrote the medical form for the court that w

That question makes a lot of sense, as the Barnetts have clearly been going out of their way to present everything as dramatically as possible to attract the attention of Hollywood.

Yes. But for the defense to file the first to bring attention to it baffling. I understand why the prosecution is—but the defense brought it up asking the prosecutors “what do you know”

 

[MissA2]

I cant make heads or tails of this. What is his lawyer asking for?

Attorneys: How much did Michael Barnett, Kristine Barnett and Natalia Barnett get paid for interviews?