Harris: Fear led to 're-homing'

Legislator says he faced threat by state if he returned girls

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MELISSA SUE GERRITS - 03/06/2015 - State Representative Justin Harris speaks with his wife Marsha speak to media during a press conference at the State Capitol March 6, 2015. Harris is under scrutiny after his adopted daughter was abused in a new home she was placed in by Harris. The Harris's cited being unable to care for the child's special needs and physical outbursts that posed a threat to herself and others.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MELISSA SUE GERRITS - 03/06/2015 - State Representative Justin Harris speaks with his wife Marsha speak to media during a press conference at the State Capitol March 6, 2015. Harris is under scrutiny after his adopted daughter was abused in a new home she was placed in by Harris. The Harris's cited being unable to care for the child's special needs and physical outbursts that posed a threat to herself and others.

A lawmaker who "re-homed" his daughter to a man who later raped her said Friday that he gave away the 6-year-old girl because he feared the Department of Human Services would accuse him of abandonment if he returned the child to the state.

Standing with his wife and his attorney, third-term West Fork Republican Rep. Justin Harris said he faced an unlivable situation with two young adopted girls. He said he went to state officials for help before being forced to find another family to take the girls.

"We are heartbroken by this situation. We attempted to make the [adoption] work for two years because we cared deeply for the girls but we were failed by [the Department of Human Services]," Harris said. "When DHS fails adopted parents, they fail the children even more. Despite what you may have read, we reached out to DHS numerous times and were met with nothing but hostility."

On Tuesday, the Arkansas Times published a story about the "re-homing" and rape of Harris' adopted daughter. Since then, both the practice of re-homing and Harris' actions have come under scrutiny.

On Friday, Harris, the vice chairman of the House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs Committee, said his efforts to return the children to the state were met with threats.

He also accused the Human Services Department of warning that he and his wife would face a child-abandonment lawsuit, one that could even result in state officials taking custody of his biological children as well.

Turning the children, and state subsidies exceeding $800 every month, over to the family of a man now behind bars for rape seemed like "a perfect solution" at the time, Harris said.

After the reading of a roughly eight-minute-long statement and two minutes of questions with a room full of reporters, Harris' attorney, Jennifer Wells intervened, and Harris walked out without answering any more questions.

Interviews about the Human Services Department's policy and procedure with spokesman Amy Webb contradicted Harris' allegations.

"By law we cannot [comment on Harris' adoption] and we are concerned about the very sensitive and protected information that has been released about vulnerable children. We also are prohibited from clarifying any inaccurate information," Webb said in a statement. "Senior DHS officials have always been available to Rep. Harris when he had personal or constituent concerns and they have had many conversations over the years. That open-door policy would have been true in this case as well."

Wells, Harris' attorney, said he is seeking copies of his adoption files from the department and that he will turn them over to the public.

Harris and his wife, Marsha, who had three sons already, said they wanted to adopt and were contacted by a woman who had three daughters who she feared the state was trying to take from her.

On Friday, Harris said he had wanted to adopt the two younger ones, but that DHS intervened, and told them he had to take the oldest daughter, who had been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder following mistreatment and abuse.

Harris said he was required to take the oldest one first -- she was 6 years old -- before getting the other two. The oldest girl stayed there for five months and showed combative and aggressive behavior, according to Harris, and was found with a stockpile of rocks and sharp implements.

The girl bashed an unrelated 2-year-old in the head with a rock, Harris said Friday, and only then did the Human Services Department take the oldest girl into custody.

"After confronting [the oldest girl] about [the cache of weapons], she disclosed her plan to kill every member in the family," Harris said. "Despite ongoing violence [between the two younger girls with] our boys, we believed [that with] love and affection that the situation would turn out OK. We were wrong. We were not prepared for children with severe, undiagnosed reactive attachment disorder."

That disorder's symptoms can surface as aggressive or defiant behavior as well as a lack of trust and can sometimes leave children unable to feel love.

The girls stayed in the Harris house for about 18 months, he said, and through all the troubles, the family sought help from the Human Services Department in taking the girls back. Harris said he followed all of the state's instructions and suggestions on how to deal with the girls.

"It was a nightmare," Harris said earlier this week. "We lived in a living hell for all that time."

Harris has had a strained relationship with the state agency for several years.

Harris was the subject of an investigation by the Department of Human Services in 2011, after Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint saying Harris' West Fork preschool, Growing God's Kingdom, had been using state money to fund religious instruction, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The preschool has received more than $3 million in grants through the Arkansas Better Chance Program starting in 2005.

The Arkansas Better Chance program, which funds preschool programs for low-income children, is created and funded by the state Department of Education and administered by the Human Services Department.

In response to the findings, and an agreement from the D.C. group to settle the complaint outside court, the Human Services Department created rules prohibiting schools receiving the grants from leading religious instruction.

Harris said in a 2012 article that he planned to sing a religious blessing with the children before meals and snacks to get around part of the prohibition in the new rules that went into effect in October 2012.

During Friday's news conference, Harris said that he wanted to return the girls to state custody but was warned that the Human Services Department would come after him.

Harris said that a former agency employee as well as a current employee indicated that if he tried to return the two girls, he and his wife would face child-abandonment accusations, which could even result in them losing custody of their biological children.

On Friday, Harris declined to name the former employee, who according to an earlier interview with Harris, told Harris' wife that "they have plotted against you guys. They sit in cubicles and plot against you. I'm telling you ... if you guys take these children back that they will get you for abandonment."

Harris also declined to name the current employee who told his family he could face the accusations.

But earlier in the week, he identified that employee as Cecile Blucker, the head of the Children and Family Services Division.

An attempt to reach her Friday was not successful.

Department spokesman Webb said she was not aware of such an interaction.

"I don't know what he said during this supposed conversation," Webb said. "But to my knowledge Ms. Blucker did not have a conversation with [Harris] making that threat."

Webb said that child abandonment, which is a civil action, can be triggered by state officials if an adoptive parent is found to have "forgone all their parental responsibilities and support, including financial support."

"So if someone comes up and drops the kid off at my place ... that situation is clearly abandonment," Webb said. "If they're providing some sort of support or financial support or are still making parental decisions, that would not be abandonment."

Webb said the agency doesn't threaten parents with child-abandonment suits if they return children because the adoption is failing.

She added that given the amount of time parents put in to adopt, her agency rarely sees attempts to return those children.

"If they came to us and said 'this is not working, please help me,' we would try everything we could do to help the families," Webb said. "For us it's about the care and protection of children and that's what we're all about."

On Friday, Harris said he had no reason not to believe that the department would punish him and his family if he tried to return the two girls.

"When they told us that we could possibly be charged with abandonment... we were threatened with that and I believed it," he said. "We had no choice."

Facing a breaking point, Harris turned to the Francis family.

Eric Francis' wife, Stacy, was a longtime friend of Harris' wife, the lawmaker said. Eric Francis once worked at Harris' day care facility, Growing God's Kingdom, before being fired by Harris for poor attendance.

The Francis family took the children in October 2013, and the Harrises continued to provide food and clothing and set up doctors appointments for the children, Harris said.

The Harris continued to cash the $820 monthly state subsidies the family got for taking care of the girls and then forwarded that money to the Francis family, Harris said.

Harris said Eric Francis had a stellar reference sheet, including time spent as a Head Start instructor, a pre-kindergarten teacher in Bentonville public schools. He was also a family pastor.

Francis also had an interest in child pornography, according to court records.

In November, Francis pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The investigation, prompted by a March 2014 tip to the state's child-abuse hotline that said Harris and his wife had re-homed the two girls to Francis, uncovered allegations by the oldest of the two, then 6, that Francis had sexually assaulted her.

State police investigators found other young girls who accused Francis of sexually assaulting them while on a trip to a lake with members of a church.

During interviews with investigators, Francis' wife told Arkansas State Police that her husband viewed pornography and that on at least one occasion, she found him with child pornography and that she was appalled.

Francis had told his wife he discovered those images by accident, but shortly before his arrest, he confided in an acquaintance that he had been viewing child pornography for years and he hated himself for it, according to investigators.

Harris left his news conference Friday before he could be asked whether he knew about Francis' past with child pornography, but he had said he and his wife had no reason to believe the Francises wouldn't be a good fit for their two girls.

On Friday, Webb said that during a screening process with department officials, if a spouse had indicated the other had a problem with pornography, especially child pornography, the revelation would have raised several red flags.

Webb said that since last year, adoptive parents who receive subsidies must agree to a contract that they will not re-home their children. Otherwise though, Webb said, there is no law or mechanism to prevent the practice in the state.

Since news of Harris' actions broke, legislators have filed bills that would end re-homing and Gov. Asa Hutchinson has vowed to look at the issue and work with others to fix it.

On Friday, House minority leader, Rep. Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock, reiterated the need for some adoption changes.

"Reasonable minds know that [Harris] did not intend to put these children in harm's way, but our extensive adoption procedures are in place to help mitigate risk," Armstrong said. "We are focused on passing [Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville]'s legislation to protect future victims by ensuring that these important protective steps cannot be bypassed."

The head of the Arkansas Democratic Party, Vince Insalaco, called for Harris' resignation, saying that Arkansas families, including those in Harris district, should be "appalled."

"I am shocked to learn of [Harris'] egregious action of placing two girls he adopted through DHS directly into harm's way by sending them to stay with another family without approval form the adoption agency," Insalaco wrote. "The idea that someone could use the foster care system to treat their adopted children like basketballs, tossing them from family to family is horrible. Then, you have an elected leader who represents an anti-government agenda; yet, he makes his living off of government funding. This is hypocrisy at the highest level."

Many legislators appeared at Friday's news conference to show support for Harris.

On Friday, House Speaker Rep. Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said that fellow lawmakers are not seeking any sanctions against Harris.

"I think our involvement from the House chamber, I think at this point is concluded," Gillam said.

Information for this article was contributed by Claudia Lauer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and by Doug Thompson of NWA-Democrat Gazette.

Metro on 03/07/2015

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