Custody Hearing Held For 7 Kids Found In Africa

Attorney: Adoptive Mother Wants Custody

HOUSTON -- Seven adopted children found in a Nigerian orphanage, some malnourished and some suffering from malaria, will stay in the temporary care of Child Protective Services, Local 2 reported Thursday.

An agreement was reached during a temporary custody hearing Thursday afternoon.

Michael Schneider, a Harris County attorney representing Child Protective Services, wants the children, ages 8 to 16, to stay in foster care. They currently live in two separate foster homes. An attorney for Mercury Liggins, the children's adoptive mother who took them to Africa, said his client wants custody.

Michael Delaney said Liggins couldn't attend the hearing Thursday because she was heavily medicated after being hospitalized following an emotional breakdown.

"She is in no state of mind to testify today and furthermore, I am not ready," Delaney told the judge, who denied his request for a delay.

The judge ordered a recess and rescheduled the hearing for Thursday afternoon.

"That will give your client the opportunity to come down here," state District Judge Sherry Van Pelt told Delaney.

But Liggins did not appear in court for the afternoon session.

"She is under medication. She was just released from the hospital," Delaney said.

Liggins, 47, took the children to Nigeria to say with her brother-in-law in October while she worked in Iraq. She remained with the children for a month, then sent the relative about $1,500 monthly to support the children and pay for their boarding school, Delaney has said. Liggins received $3,584 monthly -- $512 per child -- from the state for the children's care.

Delaney said Liggins saw the opportunity to work in Iraq as a way to financially help her family, which was investigated four times for abuse or neglect in reports dating to 1997.

Liggins' Nigerian-born second husband, who worked as a truck driver, suggested she send the children to boarding school in his home country and allow his brother to care for them while she worked in Iraq. Delaney says the brother-in-law began pocketing the money and the children were kicked out of the school in late July.

On Aug. 4, a missionary from San Antonio was shocked to encounter the seven American children. He alerted his church pastor, who involved two U.S. congressmen in the effort to bring the children home two weeks later.

Biological Mother Of 4 Of The Children

Delaney said Liggins was contacted in Iraq and tried to reach her children in Nigeria but was denied entry. When she returned to the United States, he says the children were already back. Since their return, CPS officials say the children have alleged abuse including beatings with canes and switches.

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.

Before adopting the seven, Liggins had adopted two other children with a man to whom she was married 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 CPS.

Mona Bates is with the Houston-area Boys and Girls Club. She said she spoke with the children while they were in Nigeria.

"They called us a couple of times and asked us to please come and get them," Bates said. "(They are) happy children when they were in our presence. They had their sad days, as well."

Under the agreement, Liggins will be allowed to see the children.

"My client will get court-ordered visitation with the kids while the kids are undergoing further counseling," Delaney said.

The biological mother of the four children adopted in 1996 said she and the biological father plan to get an attorney to fight for custody of their children.

"I can't really describe the feeling. I was beyond words. I just broke into tears once I really realized it was my kids," Janice Williams said.

Liggins will be back in court next week when a judge will decide if she has to pay child support while her children are in foster care.