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Russians Want Woman to Support Adopted Child She Sent Back
Filed under: Adoption, In The News
Hey, you break it, you buy it.
Or, at the very least, you pay child support. This could be store policy when you treat a kid like a Blue Light Special at Kmart.
Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn., adopted a boy from Russia and made national headlines in April when she stuck the boy on a plane by himself with a note saying she didn't want him after all.
Hansen handled the adoption through the World Association for Children and Parents. Now, the Associated Press reports, organization officials have gone to court, with the support of Russian authorities, demanding that Hansen pay $2,500 a month to care for the 8-year-old boy.
Her attorneys say forget it.
The demand for child support was filed with the juvenile court in Shelbyville. Hansen's attorney at the time, Trisha Henegar, argued in court documents late last month that the juvenile court lacks jurisdiction to order child support because Tennessee is not the boy's "home state," adding that termination of Hansen's parental rights is being handled by a Russian court.
Henegar further argued that Tennessee state law defines the "home state" as where a child lived with a parent for at least six months. The boy, who was named Justin Hansen but is known as Artyom Savelyev in Russia, reportedly lived with Hansen in Shelbyville less than six months before he was sent back.
The National Council for Adoption, an adoption advocacy group that joined in the petition against Hansen, has been trying to persuade a court in Moscow to postpone terminating Hansen's parental rights.
Her client "will not have to pay child support in Tennessee once her rights are terminated and will not be held criminally liable," Henegar writes in court documents.
However, the case is complicated. Russian authorities claim it is Hansen gumming up the process of terminating her parental rights.
The Moscow Times reports Russian children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov says Hansen is delaying the process with "cynic slyness" aimed to avoid making child support payments.
He adds the boy can't be adopted by another family until Hansen gives up her parental rights.
Since filing her arguments in December, Hansen has hired a new attorney, Jennifer Thompson. Thompson is not speaking with the press.
For now, the boy lives in a Russian orphanage. The note Hansen sent with him in April said she couldn't handle him because he had psychological problems.
Neither Hansen or her mother, Nancy Hansen (who put the child on the plane), have been criminally charged.
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Or, at the very least, you pay child support. This could be store policy when you treat a kid like a Blue Light Special at Kmart.
Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn., adopted a boy from Russia and made national headlines in April when she stuck the boy on a plane by himself with a note saying she didn't want him after all.
Hansen handled the adoption through the World Association for Children and Parents. Now, the Associated Press reports, organization officials have gone to court, with the support of Russian authorities, demanding that Hansen pay $2,500 a month to care for the 8-year-old boy.
Her attorneys say forget it.
The demand for child support was filed with the juvenile court in Shelbyville. Hansen's attorney at the time, Trisha Henegar, argued in court documents late last month that the juvenile court lacks jurisdiction to order child support because Tennessee is not the boy's "home state," adding that termination of Hansen's parental rights is being handled by a Russian court.
Henegar further argued that Tennessee state law defines the "home state" as where a child lived with a parent for at least six months. The boy, who was named Justin Hansen but is known as Artyom Savelyev in Russia, reportedly lived with Hansen in Shelbyville less than six months before he was sent back.
The National Council for Adoption, an adoption advocacy group that joined in the petition against Hansen, has been trying to persuade a court in Moscow to postpone terminating Hansen's parental rights.
Her client "will not have to pay child support in Tennessee once her rights are terminated and will not be held criminally liable," Henegar writes in court documents.
However, the case is complicated. Russian authorities claim it is Hansen gumming up the process of terminating her parental rights.
The Moscow Times reports Russian children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov says Hansen is delaying the process with "cynic slyness" aimed to avoid making child support payments.
He adds the boy can't be adopted by another family until Hansen gives up her parental rights.
Since filing her arguments in December, Hansen has hired a new attorney, Jennifer Thompson. Thompson is not speaking with the press.
For now, the boy lives in a Russian orphanage. The note Hansen sent with him in April said she couldn't handle him because he had psychological problems.
Neither Hansen or her mother, Nancy Hansen (who put the child on the plane), have been criminally charged.
Want to get the latest ParentDish news and advice? Sign up for our newsletter!
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-27-2011 @ 3:09PM
J said...I think the adoption agency should reconsider if she felt threatened in any kind of way. And psychological problems? I would send him back too! Have you seen the movie Orphan? The story is similar.
Reply
1-27-2011 @ 1:28PM
Dawn Kosiek said...Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn.,is a spoiled punk and should be forced to pay child support.What an ignorant person to bring a child to another country,adopt it and then return it as if it(the minor) were a store bought item.
Reply
1-28-2011 @ 1:50PM
GALA said...If Russia and other european countries would stop conning Americans who would just like to adopt a child, maybe things like this wouldn't happen. Too many times, they send their problem children with psych and medical problems, denying that anything is wrong with them.
I can't blame this woman - I might have done the same thing if I were desperate enough. No way should she have to pay child support - that's ridiculous!
1-29-2011 @ 3:27PM
cb said...GALA- What kind of person makes the decision to adopt a child from another country and doesn't EXPECT the worst in psychological and/or medical problems? You are aware that "many times they send their problem children", so why wasn't this ignorant woman aware who plainly expected a perfect child? If she had a biological child with psychological problems, she wouldn't be able to "send him back" as though he were a defective product. She adopted the boy which makes her his legal mother.. paying child support is the least of the repercussions she should face. And if little Artyom had issues before, I can only imagine how he is doing today after the despicable thing this woman did to him.
1-29-2011 @ 4:25PM
tish said...gala, seriously?
"If Russia and other european countries would stop conning Americans who would just like to adopt a child, maybe things like this wouldn't happen. Too many times, they send their problem children with psych and medical problems, denying that anything is wrong with them.
I can't blame this woman - I might have done the same thing if I were desperate enough. No way should she have to pay child support - that's ridiculous!"
hey i have an idea: how about americans and westerners, stop flying over the ocean, to avoid the "fees, long waits, costs and birthmama baby drama" with domestic adoption, because one can't breed! last i checked, there were no "russians and europeans" flying to tennessee going door to door selling children!
also to admit that you'd do the same thing, if "desperate" is concerning. please for the love of God, i hope you are not an adoptive parent of looking to adopt...
Reply
2-01-2011 @ 3:04PM
pro-adoption said...Although Gala seems like an idiot when she wrote that she would also give up an adopted child if desperate, but she is right in that many countries hide physical and mental illnesses, Your response is just as offending to those of us who have adopted children. Either foreign or domestic, adoption is emotionally and financially draining for those of us who cannot conceive. I can't imagine my life without my daughter and we haven't been w/o issues that might or might not have happened if she was our biologically. THINK PEOPLE: would you throw away a child that was born to you???!! Please watch what you say.....my heart physically hurt after reading some of these comments.
2-02-2011 @ 12:04PM
Marina said...I am a Russian American, send him to me, I will care for him. :)
Reply
2-11-2011 @ 1:20PM
M said...I think the agency should have prepared the adoptive mother for these sorts of problems when adopting an older child from Russia. While I understand that it may have been difficult for her, and I don't know what level of post adoption support she got from the agency, it is outrageous that she put the boy on a plane with a note. She should have to pay child support. Adoption isn't something to be taken so lightly.
Reply