Claims disputed in abuse case

Claims disputed in abuse case

Mother of adopted children says they might be lying

By: Pam Easton (The Associated Press)
Posted: 9/3/04

HOUSTON - The adoptive mother of seven children found malnourished at a Nigerian orphanage said Thursday her children could be lying about physical and emotional abuse.

"If somebody put me in an orphanage and starved me and subjected me to no sleep - sleep depravation and food depravation are two forms of torture - I wouldn't want to see that person either," Mercury Denise Liggins, 47, said shortly after a judge ordered her to pay $1,480 in monthly child support while the children remain in state custody. "And I would say anything to keep from going back."

Liggins' children, ranging in age from 8 to 17, were discovered a month ago at the Nigerian orphanage by an American missionary. The children, some of them suffering from typhoid and malaria, told the missionary they were from Houston and wanted to go home. The church's pastor told two U.S. congressmen and arrangements were made to return them to Texas.

Liggins said her only mistake was trusting her brother-in-law to care for the children in Nigeria. The relative took money she sent for the kids' benefit, causing the children to be kicked out of their boarding school and put in the squalid orphanage, she said.

The children initially were taken to Nigeria in October so she could take a job in Iraq, working for Houston-based Hallilburton subsidiary KBR.

"The reason the children ended up in the orphanage wasn't accidental," said Liggins' attorney, Michael Delaney. "We have some evidence that the oldest girl, who is 17 and had always been sort of a rebel and sort of the leader of the other children, actually plotted ... to take them to this orphanage in an effort to leave Nigeria."

The children's attorney, Terry Lea Elizondo, said the account sounded incorrect to her. The children were surprised and one even fainted when Nigerian officials showed up at their uncle's home and took them to the orphanage. The oldest child is "not a rebel at all," Elizondo said.

"She is a person, who at age 16, had to become responsible for the care of six younger siblings. She assumed the mothership role when she was over there," the attorney said, accusing Liggins of trying to shift blame and not take responsibility "for the mess she's created."

Since their return, the children have alleged years of severe emotional and physical abuse, according to Child Protective Services.

"I never dumped my children," Liggins said. "My children were left with someone who I thought was responsible. ... I am praying that I get them back."

Liggins testified Thursday during a child support hearing that she had been making up to $6,000 monthly doing contract work in Iraq as a food services worker. She went to work there in April, but left three months later. In previous jobs, she'd never made more than $9 per hour and has about $3,000 spread over six bank accounts.

She told the judge her only income is $507 in Social Security disability payments she's received monthly since 1996, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and that $500 was the most she could afford to pay to care for the children.

"This mother accepted $3,500 a month from the government to care for these children and I wonder why she shouldn't be required to pay that same amount back for the state to take care of the children," Elizondo told state District Judge Sherry Van Pelt.

Van Pelt ordered the support be paid twice a month in $740 increments, payments Delaney said he was uncertain she could make.

"It's a lot of money for somebody who is basically disabled and jobless at this point," he said.

Liggins received $3,584 monthly - $512 per child - from the state for the children's care.

Four of the children are biological siblings adopted by Liggins in 1996. The three others share another birth mother and were adopted in Dallas in 2001. The family has been investigated four times for abuse or neglect in reports dating back to 1997. Liggins characterized each as "sort of like a frivolous complaint."

Before adopting the seven, Liggins had adopted two other children with a man she was married to from 1979 to 1990. She also has two children of her own, who along with the first two adopted children, lived with Liggins' ex-husband after their divorce, according to Child Protective Services.

© Copyright 2008 The Daily Texan