This is sort of a part II to the update I did last night, “News- End of June articles relating to Enna’s death- lots of new developments.” The inclusion of these three articles brings my coverage up to date.

Torres pleads guilty in stepsister’s death

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, July 2, ‘08

Marraina Torres pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from the death of her 2-year-old stepsister.

Torres, 17, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by culpable negligence after initially being charged with capital murder. She was not sentenced but faces 2-20 years in prison.

Teenager admits killing sister, 2

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, July 3, ‘08

A tearful Marainna Torres stood before Circuit Court Judge Andrew Howorth on Wednesday and publicly admitted she killed her toddler stepsister, Enna Barreto.

She gave no details but nodded her head and said “yes sir,” when asked if she were indeed guilty of manslaughter by culpable negligence.

The legal document accusing Torres of the child’s death states that she did so “by hitting and throwing” Enna into a baby bed May 17. The child died two days later.

(Which would imply the abuse that led to Enna’s death took place in Mississippi before the trip to Memphis, .)

On May 30, the 17-year-old Torres was charged with the capital murder of her 2-year-old sister, carrying possible sentences of life in prison or the death penalty.

Her plea Wednesday now puts the sentence in the two to 20 years range.

Torres also caused a brief stir in the court when she told Howorth she was pleading guilty to a reduced charge “for a lighter sentence.”

Her attorney, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, quickly jumped in verbally when Torres said she was promised leniency for her plea.

That’s not really what she meant, he chattered in legal talk to Howorth.

District Attorney Ben Creekmore also was quick to say his office hadn’t promised anything to her in exchange for her guilty plea.

“Even if they did,” Howorth said to her, “this court would not be bound by it.”

Perhaps what you mean, Howorth continued, is that in pleading guilty to a lesser charge than capital murder, you anticipate a lighter sentence?

Yes, she responded.

and (The Barettos’ lawyer Tony Farese points out:)

“She’s pled down from a possible death penalty case to testify against her parents.

“I believe she has been promised a lighter sentence,” Farese noted from Torres’ remark in court.

Torres was not sentenced, further hinting at her likely testimony in a trial against the Barretos.

Creekmore said he was withholding comment until the Barreto case is “taken care of.”

A September grand jury is expected to consider what charges ultimately will be brought, if any, against the Barretos, who live in rural Union County.

And a final detail:

Union County sheriff’s Investigator Roger Garner said Torres is in an “undisclosed” jail within easy reach of him and her attorney.

The AP also issued a brief story with no other new details based on the DJ article:

Torres pleads guilty in stepsister’s death

AP July 3, ’08

This hardly concludes the question of how did Enna eventually come to die? More details will likely be forthcoming as the Barretos’ trial moves forward.

Before we can answer how she died, though, we first need answers to how she lived; how did Enna, along with her other ‘siblings’ (both the two legally adopted, and the other five Guatemalan[?] kids without adoption paperwork) come to live with the Barretos, how the Barretos came to pass them off as ‘their’ ‘adopted’ children, and what the children endured in the Barreto household.

For now, the various investigations, both state and federal continue. We can only hope, and continue to demand that the right questions are being asked.

I’ve been following the details in the aftermath of Enna’s death closely. For new readers, or readers in need of reminders, take a look at my earlier writings on Enna, and Bastardette’s “Mississippi: of Puppy Mills and Baby Mills — If you can stomach it!”

The below represents a final round up for a last few articles that hit towards the end of June relating to Enna. While there are certainly other articles out there, these are the one that appear to contain new details. I’ve included excerpts of some of the new material. Lots of new developments happened in late June that I hadn’t had time to blog about yet.

When we left off back on June 7th, Janet Barreto’s biological daughter Marainna Torres had been charged with capital murder in Enna’s death, but not yet arrested as she was under psychiatric care in a Memphis, TN hospital. (Memphis is where Enna died.) Capital murder is definied as a murder that occurs during the commission of another crime, in this case, felony child abuse.

We pick up the story with Marainna’s arrest June 22nd after a month of psychiatric treatment:

Teen arrested, charged with killing sister

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 22, ’08

After a month-long investigation, the 17-year-old accused of killing her 2-year-old adopted sister is in custody of the Union County Sheriff’s Department.

Bond for Marina Torres of 824 County Road 87, New Albany was set at $1 million after her Tuesday arrest for alleged capital murder. Torres has been a patient at Saint Francis Mental Hospital in Memphis since speculation that she may have caused the death of her adopted sister Enna Barreto last month.

and

Investigator Roger Garner said the Union County Sheriff’s Department has been working very hard to get someone charged with the child’s murder.

“After a month we finally got the suspect in custody,” said Garner. “We are keeping her in an undisclosed location.”

Torres’ parents, Ramon Barreto, 29, and Janet Killough Barreto, 36, are still in the Union County Jail on seven counts of child endangerment each and their bonds are set at $350,000.

and

Garner said information Torres has provided during interviews may lead to charges against the Barretos being upgraded.

Three days later, this DJ article hit detailing new charges against the Barettos.

UPDATE: Barrestos face new charges in daughter’s death

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 25, ’08

Charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence have been added to Janet and Ramon Barreto’s troubles related to the death of their 2-year-old daughter last month.

Union County Sheriff’s Investigator Roger Garner said this afternoon, the new charge has upped their bond another $150,000 each – bringing their total to $300,000 per person. The Barretos are still in jail charged with seven counts of child endangerment concerning their seven other children.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said they will be arraigned in Union County Justice Court at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Meanwhile, no arraignment has been set for Marainna Torres, Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old daughter, who is charged with capital murder in her adopted sister’s death.

The following day, this article appeared (same name, I know, it would seem the reverse order, but I’m working from the dates.) This article is from Thursday, the day of the hearing:

Barretos face new charges in daughter’s death

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 26, ’08

The Barretos are still in jail charged with seven counts of child endangerment concerning their seven other children.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said they will be arraigned in Union County Justice Court at 9 a.m. today.

He said the new charge is based on their allowing Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old daughter, Marainna Torres, to care for the young children.

and

Enna Isabel Barreto died May 19 in a Memphis hospital where she had been taken by her parents after they claimed she had fallen from a shopping cart during a family outing. An autopsy ruled the child’s death a homicide.

This, the claim the Barrestos and their lawyer made that Enna’s injuries were caused by falling from the shopping cart in Memphis (thus leading to her death) while in Torres’ care, would go on to become an issue later on.

The Barretos initially were charged with child neglect but that was changed to child endangerment after deputies and child welfare officials searched their 824 County Road 87 trailer-home near New Albany and found squalid conditions inside and a puppy mill operation outside.

All of which were found during the raid on the property back in Mississippi that was sparked by the doctors in Memphis concerns about the children’s welfare.

The next two articles mainly detail how the roughly 2 minute long hearing went.

Couple pleads not guilty in daughter’s death

AP June 26, ’08

A Union County couple pleaded not guilty Thursday to new charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence related to the death of their 2-year-old daughter last month.

Janet and Ramon Barreto entered the plea Thursday in Union County Circuit Court. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 5. Their bond was set at $100,000 each.

UPDATE: Barretos plead not guilty to new charges

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 26, ’08

Janet and Ramon Barreto, shackled and handcuffed in a justice court hearing Thursday, pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of their 2-year-old adopted daughter, Enna.

Their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, actually pronounced the words “not guilty” for them before Judge Ronnie Rackestraw. The entire hearing took less than two minutes.

Their bond was set at $100,000 each.

They have been in jail more than a month, on $350,000 bond each, on seven charges of child endangerment after their daughter’s death from head trauma.

Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old biological daughter, Marainna Torres, is in custody in an undisclosed location accused of capital murder in the child’s death. She only recently was released from a Memphis psychiatric hospital, where she was admitted immediately after Enna died.

and

The Barretos are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Aug. 5 in Union County Circuit Court.

and

The six adopted children are in foster homes in custody of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

(As far as I’ve been able to find, still only two of the children have adoption paperwork, while the others are constantly labeled “adopted” in the media, but as far as I can tell, the investigation into the disposition of the other children remains ongoing. See my earlier writings, particularly “Enna and her ‘siblings’, where did they all come from?” to understand the scope of the investigation.)

Barretos plead not guilty to new charges

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 27, ’08

It took two minutes Thursday for Ramon and Janet Barreto to formally be charged and plead not guilty to accusations they so grossly neglected their 2-year-old adoptive child that she died at the hands of her 17-year-old sister.

“I think the state’s gone out on a limb,” their attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said immediately after their arraignment at the Union County Justice Center.

and

Janet Barreto’s teenage daughter by a previous marriage, Marainna Torres, is being kept from the public eye, under $1 million bond, charged with capital murder in Enna’s death.

Her attorney, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, said later Thursday that Torres attended a circuit court hearing last week in lieu of an initial appearance to explain to her the charges and her legal situation.

Capital murder is murder during the commission of another crime; in this case, the other crime is child abuse.

Keep in mind that Torres is a minor (17) and her lawyer, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, appears to be a court appointed public defender.

Tony Farese, the Barretos’ lawyer on the other hand, is described below as “one of the state’s top defense attorneys” which I find interesting considering the Barretos themselves do not to first impression appear to be people of vast means.

They made their living renting dilapidated trailers and running animal sales at area flea markets and on the web (see this article, “Horror lurked in country home; children, animals live in filthy conditions” for more details on the treatment the animals received. This quote from the article in particular stood out for me,

“The people that did this should be shot, or at least when we come to spay and neuter these animals we should spay and neuter these people along with them,” said Mississippi State University School of Veterinary Medicine Professor Phil Bushby.”

As the animal article points out though, these animals may have fetched quite the price, giving the Barretos perhaps more of an income than might be assumed at first glance.)

Farese, one of the state’s top defense attorneys, also predicted prosecutors will offer Torres a deal for leniency to testify against her parents.

(speaking of Enna, herself:)

She died of severe head and lower body trauma, which family members originally said was caused after she fell from a shopping cart during a Memphis outing.

(Once again, watch that claim. It will matter further down into this post.)

The endangerment charges come from a sheriff’s department investigation of their 824 County Road 87 trailer home, where they found squalid conditions inside and a puppy mill out back.

“The 17-year-old is the lady who killed the child in question,” Farese insisted Thursday.

For nearly a month after the death, Torres was treated in a Memphis psychiatric facility. It’s only in the past few days that investigators have been able to question her.

“Ultimately, the parents are responsible for their children,” said Investigator Roger Garner. “We’re beginning to get some understanding of what happened.”

Farese said prosecutors, after interviewing Torres, decided the Barretos should be charged anew with manslaughter by culpable negligence because they entrusted Enna’s care to the teenager.

According to Union County’s official charge, Torres became “overwhelmed” with “all care, nourishment, and supervision” of Enna, which led to her death.

If convicted of the new charges, the Barretos could face no more than two years in prison. Justice Judge Ronnie Rakestraw set their bonds at $100,000 each. That brings to $450,000 their total bonds each.

Two years.

You read that right.

Hopefully as the investigations continue more charges will be leveled against them, possibly relating to the immigration status of the Guatemalan kids they ‘adopted’, yet seem to have no paperwork. Animal abuse charges are also in here somewhere, I believe, but in light of the immensity of what the Barretos have done, a pathetic two years seems unthinkbale.

I want to digress for a moment and once again discuss the ongoing coverage. First of all, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is really the only paper doing ongoing coverage of the aftermath of Enna’s death and their detailing of the developments has been invaluable!

But unfortunately, even in the DJ, the framing continues to be toned down, (referring to the story below.) While I fully understand how difficult it can be to fit all the angles and details into any given story, language assumptions such as ‘adoptive parents’ in light of the ongoing investigation into how the Barretos got a hold of the Guatemalan children really needs some retooling.

Everything surrounding Enna’s death goes far beyond tragic, much of it is criminal, and caught in a legal system, that to date, has only been able to apply charges with relatively minimal penalties.

It is far from “tragic” that her ‘adoptive parents’ are in jail and thus cannot walk to visit her grave, it is instead tragic that the few penalties they face to date relating to Enna’s death are so minimal that they may very well be able out to visit her grave in the not distant future.

Everything surrounding Enna Barreto’s death is tragic

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, June 30, ’08

Who is responsible for the death of Enna Barreto?

Did her parents, one American and one naturalized from Mexico, treat her so poorly by entrusting her care to her older sister that the teenager became overwhelmed and killed her?

It’s going to be Torres (‘s) word against the Barretos. Is it that simple?

The questions surrounding Enna’s procurement, suffering, and death, and that of her so called ‘siblings’ run far deeper than a mere they said/she said.

Farese describes his clients as good people, who love children. They apparently went to some lengths and extensive financial burdens to adopt the seven.

Again, speaking to those ‘adoptions’ only two appear to have the paperwork intact. As for the others, there are vast questions about how the Barretos managed to procure so many Guatemalan children, and the lack of an official paperwork trail on the kids.

Did they “love children” as their lawyer presents them, or did they just love collecting children, perhaps illegally?

The limited in scope questions the DJ article asks are simply not the right questions.

Unfortunately articles, such as this continue to be riddled with broken language, (“adoptive parents”.) While yes, the kids ended up with the Barretos, calling such a (legal) “adoption” remains a long way from being proven.

But the article does provide some insight into how Janet Barreto’s Daughter, Marainna Torres’ attorney, Thomas Levidotis intends to portray her:

Torres’ attorney, Thomas Levidiotis of Oxford, says he won’t predict any outcome except to find a way to protect “this child,” as he calls her.

and

Levidiotis says Torres is “a fragile person.” After Enna’s death, she spent 30 days in a Memphis psychiatric facility.

“She’s not some kind of mean person, a hoodlum,” he insists. “She’s entitled to our best efforts.”

It also discusses a bit about how the case will likely go forward:

First, unless District Attorney Ben Creekmore comes up with acceptable plea agreements all around, a Union County grand jury will take a look at the facts.

That’s expected in September.

The Barretos’ attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, is working to portray his clients as victims, placing the blame for Enna’s death squarely on Marainna Torres and seeking a lower bond for the Barretos.

(I’m in inverting the order of these next two article excerpts for a moment;)

Last week, they walked into the Union County Justice Center courtroom to face the new charges – Ramon, 29, a slight man wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, hands cuffed, legs shackled. Janet, 36, in grey sweatpants and a navy T-shirt, hands cuffed, legs shackled.

After the two-minute hearing they stood docily beside Farese staring blankly at two sheets of paper outlining the charges against them as TV cameras got their video.

“It’s been a tragedy – losing not only your child … locked in jail, accused of capital murder, paraded around to and from jail,” Farese observed afterward.

and

… Farese soon plans to ask for a lower bond so the Barretos can get out of jail and go home to the trailers where investigators believe Enna was attacked by Torres.

This last bit, “home to the trailers where investigators believe Enna was attacked by Torres” would seem an important direct contradiction to the family’s earlier claim that Enna died after (as a result of) having fallen from a shopping cart in Memphis, TN while under Torres’s care (the same argument their lawyer has used.) (See “The family initially claimed she had fallen from a shopping cart during a Memphis outing.” from the earlier in the same article.)

This then would then place the harm Torres allegedly caused to Enna back ‘home’ in Mississippi prior to the trip to Tennessee.

So we now have a new question, did Enna’s injuries (severe head and lower body trauma) take place in Mississippi or Tennessee? (stay tuned on that front… .)

A secondary question then comes- IF the injuries to Enna primarily took place in Mississippi, were the Barretos aware of such and if so, at what point?

Fortunately, the investigation has been ongoing:

Union County sheriff’s Investigator Roger Garner says he hasn’t stopped his investigation.

Farese, pressing ahead with the conversation, said prosecutors are going to have to tell him what Torres said, then he’ll have a chance to disprove it.

“She’s going to allege crazy stuff and we’re going to put her on the polygraph,” he told reporters Thursday.

Garner came right back, confident about what he’s got.

“I’m not crawling out on a thin limb, if I didn’t think the state’s case would hold.”

The article also includes a few details concerning Enna’s final resting place:

Back at Martin Cemetery, Enna Barreto’s grave at plot No. 50 is the last one on the back side of a relatively undeveloped part where almost all the 11 other graves are as far away from hers as possible.

Looming over the red dirt shoveled atop her tiny white casket, a few floral arrangements from her May 22 funeral are still there, now in varying degrees of decomposition. The stuffed toys on some of them have lost their fluff from the changeable weather.

Even though the Barretos cannot visit her grave yet, Garner says he does.

That’s it for June. I’ll have the ‘early July’ Enna related stories up soon by way of kind of a ‘part II’ on this catching up.

There’s more, much more to come to this long sad saga.

*

Meanwhile, my usual 3 adoption questions remain-

Who did the homestudies on the two adoptions that were legal?

What part of the adoption establishment did the two placements?

And where the fuck was the follow up for these kids? Did anyone ever bother to check on them after placement?

Just a belated brief round up of three more articles relating to the upcoming Lisa Novak trial. Those unfamilar with Novak and Claar will want to explore my earlier writings about the coverage to date to get up to speed.

Novak faces another felony
June 17th, ’08 Daily Camera

Novak pleads not guilty
June 20th, ’08 Daily Camera

This afternoon, District Judge D.D. Mallard granted the prosecution’s motion to add a fifth felony count in the case — a count of felony theft.

and

A trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 15.

Goff asked Mallard to permit his client to move to a location on the East Coast while awaiting her trial.

He said Novak’s husband, Marty Claar, can’t get a job locally because of press coverage of his wife’s legal troubles and has managed to secure employment out of state.

The judge denied Novak’s request to relocate, but said she will be allowed to travel.

Novak remains free on a $10,000 bond.

Adoption agency case set for September trial
June 21rst, ’08 Longmont Times-Call

I wanted to point readers at an article from last month’s Denver Post- International adoptions lead to broken dreams
(June 18th, 08.)

The article uses the backdrop of the Lisa Novak and Claar Foundation trial to talk about broader trends in international adoption, the changing nature of the adoption industry, and contains a number of interesting quotes from Chuck Johnson, vice president at National Council for Adoption (NCFA, a is voice of the industry, a group of member agencies based in Virginia. NCFA opposes open records, promotes Baby Moses/Baby Dump laws, and are no friend to Bastards.)

In the below I’ll quote a few tidbits on each of the major themes I mentioned above.

The exact reasons the Claar Foundation closed will probably become clear as the trial unfolds. Whatever the cause of its demise, it is but one failed agency in a complex enterprise undergoing cataclysmic change.

and

Riding an adoption wave

Starting in the 1990s, the adoption of foreign-born children into American homes exploded. The phenomenon was fueled in part by a confluence of wealth in this country and poverty in others, along with the decision of many American couples to put off having children, in some cases for too long, said Karen Rotabi, a professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies international adoption.

In 1990, 7,093 children came to new adoptive homes in the U.S. By 2004 that number had more than tripled, to 22,884.

To meet the growing call for children from overseas, “agencies were springing up all over” — often with little oversight and scant regulation, Rotabi said. In some states, opening an adoption agency has been “not much different than applying for a business license.”

Which is to say the adoption industry has had it’s own market bubble, a bubble built on American purchasing babies and their riches and ‘sending counties’ desperate poverty (as an exploitable situation, when parents cannot afford their own children, they are often placed in “orphanage” programs, and the children are then marketed as “orphans”.)

The Hague standards were crafted with the goal of protecting children, the U.S. State Department says.

“We wanted to know where children were going. Everyone wanted to make sure it was the right thing for the children,” said Catherine Mona han, State Department chief for Hague adoption implementation.

Most of those who opened adoption agencies in the past decade wanted that too, said Chuck Johnson, a vice president with the National Council for Adoption.

Some hung out shingles out of religious faith, some understood the complexities of the undertaking, some didn’t. And some had no business being in the business.

“I think some of the agencies — a small number — that are closing, it’s good that they’re gone,” Johnson said.

Even those with the best intentions often found themselves in over their heads in a complex and constantly changing endeavor, Johnson said.

It does not surprise me in the least that Johnson would be glad to see some agencies closing. Not only are they competition to some of his member agencies, but they also represent the fact that adoption was an industry in some states anyone could get into. Consolidation downward towards a decreased number of agencies means a bigger piece of the pie for those left.

Further, any ability to drive out some while leaving others, enables the false claim of the industry as self regulating, or ultimately a market where the ‘good’ survive and ‘bad’ die. By having a proportion of agencies forced to close, those left standing will no doubt then turn around and blame those (‘exceptional’) ‘bad things that happen in adoption’ on ‘a few bad apples- most of which the market killed off.’

When in reality market forces don’t always kill off the ‘bad’, nor maintain the ‘good.’ They do however favour those with either a longstanding name; often connected to celebrity or wealth and power, or those that manage to silence dissent.

Novak, a former Erie town trustee, has described herself as an attorney who specializes in international law, as well as an “adoption-reform advocate.”

With “Reform Advocates” like Novak… . Yeah, well, I’m no ‘reformer’.

State records indicate she has been involved with several adoption agencies, including One Light Adoptions Inc., which she and her brother Joseph Novak opened in 2002. He filed suit against her in 2005, claiming she was mishandling money. They settled out of court.

That same year, Novak and her husband, Martin Claar, opened the Claar Foundation.

Note Mr. Johnson in the below bemoaning the bubble burst, the decline of international adoptions in recent years. Perfectly in character for a man who represents agencies who measure those declining international adoption numbers as declines in their own agencies’ fortunes. Thus he labels the declines as “disastrous”, distastrous for the agencies he represents bottom lines that is.

The year the Claar Foundation opened, 2005, marked the first time in decades that international adoptions declined.

That decline accelerated in the two years since, according to the U.S. State Department. In 2006, the number of foreign-born children adopted into U.S. homes had dropped by nearly 2,000, to 20,679. By last year that number had dropped further, to 18,748.

“This has been a disastrous two years in the world of intercountry adoptions,” Johnson said.

Two years ago, as many as 700 agencies nationwide were licensed to arrange international adoptions. Now they number 400 or so, Johnson estimated. Over the next year, that number will dwindle further, he predicted.

In Colorado, four of the 27 agencies — including the Claar Foundation — licensed to handle international adoptions have closed in the past year. Of those that remain, nearly half are losing money, according to a state report released May 1.

Also note the renaming game. Facing legal trouble under one agency name? No problem, just start another.

At both hearings, one involving the Singhs and another involving charges stemming from another couple’s experience with Claar, a judge ruled there is enough evidence for Novak to be tried on felony charges.

The charges are the most serious, but not the first, legal trouble for Novak. She has been ordered to pay restitution in one suit and has been the target of at least half a dozen others.

What the Denver Post perhaps overlooks in its focus on couples who fell in love with a photograph and then ran around calling a kid in another country ‘theirs’ is that there is another important facet to the “broken dreams” happening in international adoptions at the moment, the now broken dreams of wealth and prosperity the intercountry adoption industry has experienced in the last few years. With the fall off of numbers of placements and ‘sending counties’ closing their doors, the agencies themselves are having to scramble for an ever decreasing pool of ‘product’ (i.e. kids.)

While wanna-be-adopters treasure their pictures of hoped for ‘daughter-to-be’s, international agencies look at their ledger books and count children as their ‘profits-to-be.’

On June 25th, those who had been involved in the Evan B. Donaldson Institute’s (EBD’s) Dec. ’07 “For the Records National Conclave” in NY received an e-mail from Susan Hicks, EBD’s new “project administrator” on the Institute’s open records project.

Yesterday, Bastard Nation responded to the Evan B. Donaldson Institute e-mail from Ms. Hicks with an important “Open Letter” a copy of which, with an introduction from Bastard Nation’s Executive Chair, Marley Greiner, can be found on her personal blog, The Daily Bastardette.

Go read the piece, it will get you up to speed on the situation.

In response to the Bastard Nation open letter, I wrote the following:

That SO needed saying.

Speaking as one of those ‘Black Holed Bastards’ (from Ohio, myself,) I found the EBD e-mail from Susan Hicks appalling.

Ohio’s black hole is precisely the situation we who care about genuine open records have worked to eradicate. So when Massachusetts built a new black hole for Massachusetts Bastards, we were horrified.

It is “example A” of the kind of legislation we have fought and continue to fight against. It is, to put it mildly, what not to do.

For EBD to then turn around and HIRE a person who proudly brags of having played (to use her term) an “instrumental role” in the Massachusetts disaster shows either profound ignorance of what black hole legislation does to Bastards (something that as Marley pointed out even EBD’s own report rejects) or outright stupidity.

You don’t REWARD people who were part of destroying records access/genuine open records by placing them in the position of the Institute’s ‘project administrator’ on open records! Good grief!

Putting forward Ms. Hicks as any kind of liaison with the rest of the open records and adopted people’s community would be laughable, were it not so tragic.

It is beyond insulting.

Marley and BN are if anything, being far too polite.

Once again, EBD shows that despite even the content of their own reports, their current set of actions reflect a profound unawareness of the issues faced by, and real needs of, adopted people.

Perhaps instead of e-mailing AT adopted people, EBD would do well to LISTEN to those of us who have been working towards our own open records instead.

As I’ve said before, when it comes to adoption, and open records, we (pro-uncompromised open records adopted people) are the experts.

In the mean time, EBD does not and can not, speak for me. Certainly not if they view Ms. Hicks as an Institute appropriate ‘project administrator’ on open records.

As for those of us who ARE black holed Bastards ourselves, we will continue to speak and work on our own behalf- uncompromisingly.

Why? Because my life, my access to my own State confiscated records, and my authentic genetic identity are all not things I’m willing to ‘compromise’ away.

Since certain people are running around falsely insisting BN ‘pulled out’ of the Adoptee Rights Demonstration BEFORE the fundraising done by Abrazo Adoption Associates came to light, a micro-timeline appears to be in order to set the record straight.

In the following, I am basing this timeline on events from the organizer’s list, no doubt many things were happening simultaneously, and individual people may or may not have been aware of each one, further many other details were happening via phone calls and interpersonal e-mails. This is merely the information all ARD/DAR organizers had access to. (Which does not mean each individual organizer was aware of each of the following at the time.)

Also everything in the following is/or has been either already out in public or is paraphrased after first gaining permission to share the details, except the exact times.

Amy’s mention of the Abrazo fundraising to organizers which she had mentioned on her own blog in her piece “Regarding Bastard Nation’s Withdrawal” (originally posted June 2nd) has now been been removed and replaced with a new entry. Originally, the entry detailed her “history” with Abrazo.

Originally, it read in part:

I said that there were people raising money to come to the Adoption Rights Protest. I mentioned Abrazos…

As for the times, they are details I have brought to this because they are essential to explaining what happened; the times relate to what was know-able when.

When the list was presented to individual organizers, it was not explained to be ‘private’ or ‘confidential’ in any way (common sense would say such SHOULD have been, but it wasn’t.) Others have also moved many other details from onlist into a variety of spaces both public and private.

All that said, I don’t speak for Bastard Nation. I’m writing merely as myself, based on some of what my perspective was an organizer within ARD/DAR. Actual Executive Committee members with BN no doubt have a far more detailed timeline.

The following is just was what was onlist, available to any of us from the times they were posted. Essentially, this forms the backbone of a lowest common denominator of information available to ARD/DAR original organizers.

To fully understand the impact of Ron’s proposed postponement to try again another year on many ARD/DAR organizers, readers would have to first understand that even going to the National Conference of State Legislators annual meeting had been Ron’s idea in the first place.

It was Ron who contacted some of us to work with ARD/DAR, and it was my understanding (speaking only for myself here) that he was to have been the lead organizer on ARD/DAR, yet due to his wife’s illness (among other factors) he had been unable to fully take that on. Many things got left to a less experienced organizer who initially was to been helping him. He was the seasoned activist who wanted to make this happen, further, (again speaking only for myself) he was the activist I knew. So naturally when he assessed the situation and said in essence, let’s try it again at a later date, his words carried great weight.

May 29th 2008

(all times are Eastern)

11am BB Church/Ron proposed a postponement of the Adoptee Rights Demonstration /Day for Adoptee Rights (ARD/DAR) You can see his writing from the 29th included in his June 5th blog entry.

11:13am Amyadoptee mentioned Abrazo Adoption (Associates) had a website up to raise money (around ARD/DAR)

9:41pm I requested a very basic, statement from BN for the organizers list only, as to whether BN was going forward or not, purely so other organizers could base their own decisions on whether they wanted to stay on or not with as many facts as possible. BN being on or off might be a deciding factor for some, and so I thought it was important that in light of Ron’s proposed postponement from that morning, that we hear something from BN (as they were a co-sponsor) about what Bastard Nation intended to do organizationally. I asked for such in part because knowing who was in or out would help all organizers with their own evaluation/assessment process of whether or not it made sense to go forward.

10:36pm Marley (the Executive Chair of Bastard Nation) dictated a very brief (two sentence) private statement for the ARD/DAR organizer list by phone, informing us that BN had voted to withdraw organizational support from the event.

11:14pm I said I would be holding off on my personal decision about whether or not I would continue on with ARD/DAR until after Ron’s call with Abrazo the next day.

May 30th

2:36am and again at 3:42am Marley got her first access to e-mail and sent e-mails to me, which I passed along to the list as she was unable to post to the list directly. (The times represent when the e-mails arrived on list.) The two e-mails she sent out were further clarifications of BN’s organizational decision to the organizers’ list.

11:23pm (After Ron’s call with Abrazo) I resigned and my partner, Sleeps with Bastard, and I removed ourselves from the organizers list.

June 1rst

(late Sunday night/Monday morning)

Bastard Nation’s public announcement on their withdrawal from ARD/DAR went out.

June 5th

I am unaware of when Ron ceased working the the current set of ARD/DAR organizers, but his blog statement went up on the 5th.

Between BN, myself and my partner, and Ron’s withdrawals, that represents more than half of the original organizers on the list leaving.

So yes folks, BOTH Ron’s call for postponement (based on low numbers etc) and Abrazo’s fundraising were definitely ‘in play’ BEFORE Bastard Nation withdrew.

(Just a micro backgrounder post on some of the older stories on Lisa Novak.)

A timeline of articles (12 stories linked, dates range from February 17th- June 2nd)

and two earlier stories on Lisa Novak’s arrest:

Ex-Erie trustee arrested in adoption agency probe March 27, 08

Police arrest former adoption agency owner March 27, 08

Mere days ago, two to be exact, I said the following in this post, ARD- This morning’s Adoptee Rights Demonstration webpage update and what the loss of BN means, speaking of the current state of the Adoptee Rights Demonstration with the mostly new set of organizers going forward (I’ll quote at length because it has everything to do with point “1.” below):

“…since they now have the booth, what does a post-Bastard Nation withdrawal Adoptee Rights Demonstration intend to do with it? I.E. what ‘messaging’ are they going to be taking to legislators and aides, in the name of the broader adoptee rights ‘movement’.

When BN was involved, they were always extremely clear on how search, medical records, etc were not directly related to open records, as such are interpersonal issues that adoptees deal with AFTER they have their own information from the State and without State interference, just like any other person.

See this from BN’s FAQ:

“While we support those adoptees who wish to search for birth relatives and offer resources on our website, http://www.bastards.org/search/, we do not help people search. Our mission relates only to unconditional adoptee access to birth and adoption records. Our concern is the relationship of the adopted person to the state, not to his or her birth or adoptive parents. We believe it is a personal decision whether one wishes to reconnect with birth relatives, one which adoptees should be able to make freely without state interference.”

But now that BN is off, coupled with the recent death of Julia of Julia’s Jam and how the adoption community is dealing with that by conflating her death for lack of access to medical information into the fight for open records (medical records of parents remain confidential, even under open records. Yes, with open records she may have been able to connect with family and asked them to see if a match could be made, etc, but open records do not equate to access to ‘original’ parent’s medical information. Open records are merely about getting access to your own unaltered original birth certificate, or OBC- from the State, not a medical history) it raises concerns about whether or not the people who will be in that booth fully understand what open records are and are not, and whether they will have the skills needed to articulate such clearly.

This was why the Bastard Nation Bastard Boot camp teach-in that was supposed to take place over the events in New Orleans was so vital. The average adoptee simply has never learned the difference between restoring access to our OBCs from the State, and the need for medical information which must be obtained in a secondary step from family members themselves IF THEY CONSENT TO IT.

This is how you ended up with conflated, mismessaged, manglings of actual open records work like the Gladney 120th anniversary protest utilizing slogans such as “…Genetic secrecy kills adoptees.” If this becomes their version of “open records work” it means they don’t know.

And them not knowing is going to hurt all of us in the long run.

All of which is to say, the loss of BN on the ARD/DAR is going to have profound effects.

And it has the potential to really destroy some of the existing open records work that has been ongoing.

I, personally have grave concerns about what will and will not be said in said booth, now that many of the experienced political Bastards with a strong grounding in Bastard politic are out.”

Well, had I bothered to read Joy, on her blog (I am not one of her regular readers), I would have seen the following, If you LOVE an adoptee, originally posted June 3rd

Why we should suffer through the absolute slogging that goes into pulling something like this off?

1. Closed Records Kill

2. There is no such thing as guaranteed anonymity, records seal upon adoption not relinquishment, and unseal upon disruption.

3. The law is on our side. The right to privacy secured by the constitution is the right from privacy from governmental interference in our personal lives, not the right for governmental interference.

4. The government is not in the business of protecting people from the facts of their own life.

5. Human dignity, no person should have to be treated with the indignity of not being allowed to know their own vital statistics.

6. Civil Rights, The Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. the Board of Education that separate is in fact not equal, our rights need to be restored, the codification allowing the creation of a second class of people is unconstitutional.

Okay, that is my short list, I could go on, but why? That is more than enough.

I suppose I’m going to have to spend the time it takes to go point by point about how for example point 1. is conflationism of the worst kind, (see the above.) And further, that from a purely pragmatic stance, when adoptees start basing their arguments on their need for medical records all they get is further crap-o-la like an often optional medical history form added to the stack ‘o forms parents fill out upon relinquishment.

Records remain sealed, the objection has been ‘handled’, and all you’ve done is further conflated your status as adoptees with your demand for confidential medical history from another person. Thus making us appear to be precisely the ‘demanding whining little forever children who NEED and then DEMAND contact with their families of origin’ legislators are forever being warned about by those who benefit by keeping records sealed.

But by all means, just play into that role someone else has already cast you for.

Whatever you do, don’t listen to the years of experience of the existing movement to push for our records restoration that has been carefully studying what arguments work and what don’t in legislative halls for years now.

No, far better to just reinvent that wheel.

Number 2. is a Bastard Nation talking point. BN has been using it for years.

Number 3 would take a book, suffice it to say, the law is clearly NOT on our side. If it were, we wouldn’t be working to change the law in 44 states, now would we?

As for the constitutional right to privacy you allude to- you might want to go back and actually read Roe v. Wade and its companion piece Doe v. Bolton. Then read about the legislative and legal history AFTER 1973, see the ’76-77 Hyde Amendment battles, 92’s Planned Parenthood v Casey, as but two examples. Part of the entire point of the patchwork of abortion laws across this country is that the courts have found that there are times when the State’s interest overrides a womyn’s autonomy, thus making her a slave to her own anatomy.

(I would argue the courts have found incorrectly, but we’re dealing with the realities on the ground here, at the moment. So no, the law is NOT on our side, that has been the entire point of the year by year eroding away of reproductive autonomy and privacy.)

Number 4., the State is ABSOLUTELY in the business of “protecting” people from the facts of their own lives- Duh! That’s what being a sealed records Bastard is all about! While no, the State shouldn’t be- that hardly changes the fact that at this very moment, it most certainly is in all but 6 states when it comes to access to our original unaltered birth certificates!

5. If you think legislators give a crap about human “dignity” you clearly slept through the entire Terri Schiavo mess. (Yes, I know this a federal example, when we are talking about records restoration as a states issue, while no one state case as of late has perhaps had quite the notoriety of Schiavo’s case, many state legislators have been more than happy to do their own ‘local’ versions of the Schiavo fiasco.) The INDIGNITIES these people and their families have endured at the hands of legislators grandstanding for votes should tell you all you need to know. Indignity is just fine if it helps ’em come November.

Finally, number 6. Again, if you understood for one moment what historically HAS HAPPENED when adoptees raise even the spectre of conflating our circumstances with those of African Americans and the American legacy of slavery, you’d avoid even the unintended appearance of such like the plague. Adoptees’ circumstances are fundamentally different than many aspects of African American experiences (unless of course, one happens to be an African American Bastard! Then speaking to both would be speaking of one’s own life.), and any attempt to co-opt such history or voice for your own use, let alone the fight for open records disgusts me on a deeply personal level. And to pull that in N’awlins? (This would be me, my blood boiling) THINK for a moment would you?

This is a paragraph I wrote back on January 10th, 2008 in the first BLC post I ever wrote about the Adoptee Rights Demonstration (I’d link it, but the post is no longer visible. I have made it private, at bare minimum until I get some kind of disclaimer up on every post I wrote about ARD before Bastard Nation withdrew.):

Do I have reservations? (Well, will it be New Orleans in July? Yup, and I know what that means. Will lots of Bastards end up looking like a bunch of white faces- unavoidably so, we are after all, what the open market bought- usually white skinned and often blond or fair haired. That’s the very nature of the adoption beast. How do we do what we need to do in New Orleans while not overlooking or in anyway downplaying the magnitude of the realities New Orleans itself currently faces? On that one, I have no real answer yet. Yeah, it’s going to be strange protesting for open records in a place where day to day fighting for SURVIVAL is a genuine reality. I’m still trying to figure this one out, but the bottom line is we’re there because they’re there- the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Annual Meeting.) Oh, you meant HOTEL reservations… none-the-less yes, of course, we have those too!

So, if I set Joy’s list aside, what DO I recommend? How about starting with listening to those who have actually gotten states to open over the last decade since Oregon’s measure 58? Now, am I saying do a state referendum? No each state is unique. But listen and learn from what arguments along those lines have gotten us before.

Now, why would someone (Joy) turn to such legal and court based arguments? Particularly when one is intending to utilize them with legislators not judges?

Could it be because Joy, herself, as someone working on the Adoptee Rights Demonstration, continues to leave a vital question unanswered?

So let’s go back and pull it from this comment thread on Bastardette, I asked Joy then:

You say open records are your focus, so let me ask you publicly; do you personally believe state by state legislative work (BN’s strategy and what DAR originally advocated, particularly since it’s outside the annual meeting of State Legislatures) is the best strategy to work for open records going forward? If not, why are you working with the Adoptee Rights Demonstration whose original intent was exactly that?

Joy proceeded to not answer the question.

So I restated it and put it out again:”

I’ll note you did not answer my question about the very premise of the event itself as originally stated.

Funny about that.

Folks might want to do some follow up on that, since Joy hasn’t answered me yet.

It’s an important question, essentially do those working on it now fully support the premise of the event?

The question continues to linger in the air.

If this is the ‘messaging’ we can come to expect from the post Bastard Nation withdrawal from the Adoptee Rights Demonstration organizers, we will continue to get more of the same, closed records.

Why?

Because such messaging has been tried before. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.

New readers should first look to my earlier coverage on Enna’s story for a basic backgrounder:Enna, oh Enna! aka When animals outweigh a dead Guatemalan ‘adoptee’. 5/24/08

and

Enna & her ’siblings’, where did they all come from? 6/3/08

Yesterday afternoon (6/6/08) news of the older sister being charged in Enna’s death back on May 30th broke.

See, for example the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal article entitled Sister charged in 2-year old’s death.

Seventeen-year-old Marainna Torres is charged with capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old adopted sister, Enna Barreto, Union County Justice Court records show.

(Keep in mind, Enna’s ‘adoptive’ ‘family’ consisted of 9 kids: 2 biologically related to at least one parent, and 7 others, including Enna who were adopted/’adopted’ [the paperwork was missing on 5 of the kids.] Only two of the ‘adoptions’ were said to have been proven to have gone through normal channels.)

and

Torres is the daughter of Enna’s adoptive mother, Janet Lee Killough Barreto, by a previous marriage.

She has not yet been arrested in the death and is believed to be under psychiatric evaluation in a Memphis hospital. The record of her capital murder charge is dated May 30, said Justice Court Clerk Larissa Edwards.

Oxford defense attorney Thomas Levioditis has been or will be appointed to represent her, said Assistant District Attorney Kelly Luther on Friday.

The AP story from later on last night revealed few other details. This may the first time an article has mentioned Enna’s full name, Enna Isabel Barreto.

Union County Justice Court Clerk Larissa Edwards told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that a May 30 document showing the capital murder charge is in the court’s records.

*******

* This hit my e-mail after I had already posted the above, a new article from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, “Sister Charged in Union Death“:

Oxford defense attorney Thomas Levioditis has been or will be appointed to represent her, said Assistant District Attorney Kelly Luther.
Late Friday, it was unclear whether a judge had ordered the legal representation, but Luther and Levioditis confirmed the arrangement.

“I haven’t spoken with her yet,” said Levioditis, noting Torres is being treated “where she can be diagnosed.”

Capital murder is a murder that occurs during the commission of another crime – in this case it’s felony child abuse, said Union County sheriff’s investigator Roger Garner.

As late at 5 p.m. Thursday, District Attorney Ben Creekmore told the Daily Journal no new charges had been filed in the case.

and

Chancery Court documents show Marainna Torres was born April 26, 1991, the daughter of Janet Killough Torres and Martin M. Torres. They were divorced in 2000.

She is believed to have attended Victory Christian Academy in New Albany.

Today is a sad day for those who care about Bastard access to our unaltered Original Birth Certificates.

Ron has his statement up. He too, is no longer involved in the Day for Adoptee Rights (/Adoptee Rights Demonstration.)

Again, I advise people go read it in full.

Sadly, the fight for open records itself has also lost a great deal today. To quote Ron:

I am also announcing my retirement from “adoptee politics”, such as it is, although I will still post from time to time on on this blog on issues relating to adoptee rights.

Ron has fought for open records and been a strong voice for Late Discovery Adoptees (see his other blog, Are You Adopted, Are You Sure?) for many years now. His flashes of deep insight into adoption politics and practical wisdom will be sorely missed.

This is the legacy of ARD/DAR, some of the most brilliant people I know feeling there is no longer any way for them to work in the environment that is adoptee ‘rights’.

Here’s wishing you my best Ron, I’ve no doubt you’ll find your own place to leave your mark on this world.

The fight for Bastard dignity and equality was the better for having you beside us.