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Russia Probes Adoption by U.S. Couple Charged With Child Abuse

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Russia Probes Adoption by U.S. Couple Charged With Child Abuse

February 11, 2006

Moscow News

MOSCOW (AP)_ Russian prosecutors are investigating the legality of the adoption of a disabled Russian boy by a western New York couple who have been accused of abuse, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

The 4-year old was repeatedly beaten by his adoptive mother, who cut his ear with scissors and threatened to cut out his tongue for not reading his prayers correctly in English, according to prosecutors in Allegany County.

Prosecutors from the boy's native region of Rostov will check the legality of adoption and might open a criminal case, Interfax quoted Deputy Prosecutor-General Sergei Fridinsky as saying.

"We've had precedents when an investigation into activities of mediators and civil servants in various regions of Russia resulted in criminal cases being opened," he told Interfax.

The boy, who was born with one arm, was placed in protective custody Thursday after his mother, Jane Cochran, 43, of Alfred, was charged with second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Cochran's husband Timothy, an associate professor of electrical engineering technology at Alfred State College, also was charged with endangering the boy.

The couple's three other children also were taken from them after an emergency Family Court hearing on Tuesday. The mother was released on $10,000 bail and the father on $5,000 bail.

In recent years, Russian officials have reacting increasingly negatively to foreigners' adopting Russian children, with some nationalist lawmakers asserting children are being "bought" by foreigners. Cases of abuse by foreign adoptive parents are widely reported in the Russian media.

Advocates for children, however, have disputed the assertions and say restricting foreign adoptions would harm thousands of Russian children waiting to be adopted.

The number of Russian adoptions has dropped from 14,000 to about 7,000 annually since the early 1990s, while the number of foreign adoptions rose from 1,400 to 9,000. U.S. families account for half of those.

2006 Feb 11