TWO WERE TOLD BABY PUT UP FOR ADOPTION, POLICE AFFIDAVIT SAYS
Bobette Riner
The Dallas Morning News
July 19, 1985
GRAND PRAIRIE -- A Cedar Hill couple being sought in the alleged sale of a 7-month-old baby told the infant's mother and a baby sitter that they had given the baby up for adoption to a New York couple, according to a search warrant affidavit released Thursday.
Grand Prairie police said that they still are searching for the baby, Rachel Marie Hagge, but that they do not know whether the baby is with a New York couple.
Dallas attorney Robert I. Kingsley has posted $1,500 bond after his arrest on an investigative charge of sale of a child in connection with the Hagge case. Police say they are preparing formal child-selling charges against him. And state Human Resources Department investigators say they have referred three child-selling cases against Kingsley to district attorneys in Denton and Dallas counties and are investigating 24 others.
Kingsley and his attorney, Tom McCorkle, could not be reached for comment Thursday, but have said that Kingsley has done nothing illegal and has been involved in arranging private adoptions.
According to the search warrant affidavit by Lt. J.M. Gatlin, attorney E.A. Weinberg told police he was handling the adoption of Rachel for the Cedar Hill couple at the request of Kingsley. Weinberg told police Kingsley "had brought in a couple from New York or New Jersey to adopt the child,' the affidavit said.
The two attorneys and the Cedar Hill couple met June 21 "to formulate the adoption process,' the affidavit said. Gatlin's affidavit also said Weinberg "became suspicious of the deal and . . . refused to handle it.'
Among the items seized in the search of Kingsley's office was a June 21 canceled check to the Cedar Hill couple for $1,210.45, according to records.
When Rachel's mother asked the couple about the girl, they told her "that they had lost the baby in court and that a New York couple was going to adopt Rachel,' Gatlin's affidavit said.
Rachel was last seen at 5 p.m. June 13, when the couple picked her up from a baby sitter, the affidavit said. The couple told the baby sitter "that they were going to turn the child over to a lawyer in Garland, Texas, because a New York couple was going to adopt her,' Gatlin's affidavit said.
A warrant for the couple has been issued by a district court demanding their return for questioning, Gatlin said. He said Thursday he had put out a teletype to law enforcement agencies nationwide and had called authorities in two of five states where the couple may have gone.
A Friday morning hearing has been scheduled in the court of state District Judge Penfold to try to determine the status of the adoption.
Kingsley's wife, Kit, said Thursday that she does not understand why she has been subpoenaed to appear at the hearing.
Mrs. Kingsley, a legal assistant who sometimes helps with her husband's practice, said her husband was one of "seven or eight' Dallas lawyers who have handled out-of-state adoption cases for a New York agency.