The verdict in the Miles Harrison trial has been handed down since this article was originally written. Please see my later post entitled No, no justice for Dmitry for more up to date information concerning the verdict. The article below appears as it was originally posted.

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This post is an update to an ongoing series of posts I have made about the death of Dmitry Yakolev/Chase Harrison and the agency that placed him, European Adoption Consultants (EAC). EAC is one of the largest international adoption agencies in the world and the top agency in Russia (and had been in Guatemala.)

Russian law requires officials be kept up to date by the placing agencies of the disposition of the children placed through them with regular updates for the first three years. In the aftermath of Dmitry’s death, the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science opened an investigation into EAC for their apparent failure to report his death immediately.

Dmitry is the the second Russian child EAC had placed who died apparently as a result of actions by their adopters. Logan Higgenbotham was killed by her adoptive mother in 1988. You can read my previous posts about Dmitry and EAC by clicking here (read from bottom to top, as entries are in reverse chronological order.)

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By way of an evening round up, no determination was made today, a verdict is expected tomorrow.

NBC Washington- Judge Turns Down Motion to Dismiss Charges in Hot Car Death Case

The prosecution has rested its case, and the defense is presenting.

Also, along the lines of what I discussed in my post from earlier today, while I have not been in the courtroom myself, Peter Greenspun’s defense of Miles Harrison sounds less than stellar:

from ABC 7- Verdict Expected in Toddler’s Hot SUV Death

Defense attorneys argued Harrison loved his son, but was distracted by work problems that morning.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think most people manage to think through their work problems without leaving dead Russian adoptees to bake to death in hot SUVs in July… .

As Marley reported on her blog earlier,

The defense scheduled 37 witnesses to testify to Harrison’s character.

If all 37 really are to testify, getting through all of their glowing assessments of Harrison’s parenting skills may take some time.

One comment in particular, reported here on Fox/Faux news 5- Father Takes Stand in Child’s Overheating Death, struck me as incongruous:

Witnesses describe Harrison as a “joyful”, “natural” father.

While I understand the way the witness intended such, as an adoptee myself, writing about Dmitry’s death, I think it’s readily apparent that Miles Harrison was not a “natural” father, that was why the Harrisons turned to international adoption in the first place.

In any case, today Miles Harrison himself took the stand. Clearly Greenspun (his lawyer) was attempting to play up the “has/is suffering enough”/”not very together about the whole event” defense (after Harrison’s “collapse” and two weeks in a mental institution in the aftermath of Dmitry’s death.) Again from the same piece cited above:

Harrison’s lawyer asked him “Do you know why that happened?” Harrison answered “no”. “Do you know how it happened?” “No.” Then attorney Peter Greenspun asked “During the course of the day, where did you believe Chase was?”

Harrison fought back tears and whispered “daycare”.

A judge says he will rule Wednesday morning on Harrison’s guilt or innocence.