Sex Offenders Penetrate Foster Homes

A Kentucky audit discovered at least 12 instances of children living or being cared for in state-regulated homes where sex offenders lived. The report, released last week by the Kentucky state auditor, compared the addresses of registered sex offenders with those of foster homes; the residences of other children under state care; and homes that provide state-subsidized day care for low-income families.


The addresses of registered sex offenders were compared through an electronic data match to the addresses of homes and facilities that provide care and out-of-home placements for children, resulting in matches for 30 different homes. Follow-up reviews of the matched addresses confirmed that sex offenders resided in 12 of the 30 homes. For the remaining 18 matches, the review indicated that either the sex offender did not live at the address or that the residency status of the offender could not be determined.


The findings break down as follows:

Twelve registered sex offenders were confirmed to be living in state regulated homes that provide care and placement services for children. Of these, registered sex offenders were found living in seven relative caregiver homes within the Kinship Care Program; registered sex offenders were confirmed to be living in two foster homes; and registered sex offenders were confirmed to be living in three registered child care homes.

These findings are nothing new. In 1977, the Chicago Tribune published a groundbreaking series of articles on child exploitation which led to the first legal regulation of child pornography later that year. Among the Tribune's findings over 30 years ago were the following:

In New Orleans, a group of adult perverts established a Boy Scout troop in 1974 for the purpose of using boys ranging from 11 to 15 years old for homosexual purposes. Nineteen men were charged with multiple counts of crimes against nature. Among them were two Boston area millionaires and a California millionaire alleged to have flown to New Orleans to have sex with the boys. Police Investigation of the case extended into 34 states.


An Episcopal priest in Tennessee, the Rev. Claudius I. [Bud] Vermilye Jr., was charged with taking in runaway and neglected children at his Boys Farm and encouraging them to engage In homosexual orgies which he secretly filmed. He was also charged with allowing adult "sponsors" to sexually abuse the boys.


Pornographers in at least five states-Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida-used or attempted to use federal, state and county funds to establish foster homes and child care camps for their operations, and some used foster children in pornographic movies. In at least one instance, pornographers obtained a federal income tax exemption for a "church" later identified as a front for their operations.

It should come as no surprise that what was happening 30 years ago is happening many times over today given cheap and ubiquitous technology and the ability of like-minded individuals to surreptitiously conspire on places like Facebook and MySpace.


Five years ago, when we began investigating Masha Allen's adoption by a 45 year old single man, the international adoption industry berated us with a chorus of improbabilities; the made to order adoption of a blond hair blue eyed orphan by a child molester was not only unprecedented, but far beyond their standard of care to even conceptualize. It was not only an anomaly, it was inconceivable.


An even cursory review of Neil's excellent Pound Pup Legacy website reveals dozens if not hundreds of similar cases in both international and domestic adoption and child welfare.


As we reported here over two years ago, "consider that fact that renowned naturist leader Toni Egbert was the sister of ROTIA's executive director when Mancuso adopted, the prevalence of Russian and Ukrainian children in naturist videos (click at your own risk), and the accepted practice of supplying nude pre-adoption videos of East European children, and the question becomes why WOULDN'T pedophiles adopt?"


The fact, which was apparently forgotten by Kentucky's child welfare agency (whose initial response to the audit was deficient), is that for decades pedophiles and their enablers have, are and will attempt and succeed in adopting children and exploiting the innocent (sometimes at taxpayer expense and subsidy). No imagination is required to envision that reality. Agencies, lawmakers and judges need to keep this in mind when developing public policy and holding wrongdoers accountable.