TV adoption story of Roy pair yanked

TV adoption story of Roy pair yanked

Apr 10, 2004

Amy Joi Bryson

Deseret News

Discovery Health Channel yanked an adoption profile that was scheduled to air Friday on a Roy couple who were charged with abusing their son since the segment was taped.

The profile on Scott and Catherine Kanani Nelson first aired in July 2003 and also ran earlier this month.

A Sandy viewer, who had read a Deseret Morning News story about the Nelsons' criminal charges, told the newspaper that the show depicted the Nelsons as a wholesome family who had longed for children to cherish.

What police and prosecutors say they found, however, was months of alleged abuse that involved making the then-7-year-old sleep on a concrete landing and go to an outside shed called the "spider house," where the child was forced to stay for hours with very little clothing.

Both Nelsons have been charged in Ogden's 2nd District Court with second-degree felony child abuse and face a preliminary hearing April 28. Their adoptive children have been placed in state custody.

On the Discovery Health Channel's Web site promoting the adoption series, the Nelsons are described as a couple who are unable to have their own biological children due to complications.

It goes on to say they are adopting two siblings, a girl and boy from Samoa, to make an "instant family."

State officials told Discovery Health officials about the abuse charges early Friday. By that afternoon, their profile had been yanked and another airing of the segment scheduled for next week also was pulled.

"Discovery Health Channel is deeply saddened and troubled to learn of the alleged abuse of the Nelson family's adopted son," said Laura Reimers, vice president of communications for the channel.

Reimers said the daytime "Adoption Stories" documented the child's adoption by the Nelsons in April 2003, with the first episode airing that summer.

The Nelsons were among two dozen couples from throughout the country profiled as part of the series.

The Nelsons' attorney said the child's treatment was not as bad as authorities claim but the couple did use bad judgment.

Attorney Gary W. Barr said the police statement about the treatment of the boy was greatly exaggerated.

Barr said the boy "started to act out and wanted to return to his home in Samoa," and started defecating in his pants and withdrawing.

"The child was never locked outside in a shed. He was caused, on a few occasions, to wait outside of the house, in the winter, in his underwear, and the child did go into the shed," Barr said in a faxed statement.

Barr said there was no proof the boy was forced to live on the landing.

"They did make him stay at the bottom of the stairway as a time out after he defecated and/or urinated in his pants or on the floor," and he slept there a few times, Barr said.

He denied the child was given putrid food for lunch. He said the boy was given a sandwich, fruit, cookies and chips every day.

"There was a person who said that one day the sandwich's crust looked stale and the peanut butter did not look 'normal,' whatever that means.

"There was no evidence of starvation," Barr said. "In fact the child was in the 75th percentile of weight for children of his age, and blood work done on the child showed no evidence of malnutrition."

Barr said the boy did have bruising.

"The parents' attempts to discipline were in bad judgment in my opinion," he said. "Certainly there were many other things they should have done."

Contributing: Associated Press

E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com