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Adoptive dad faces multiple abuse charges

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Adoptive dad faces multiple abuse charges

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ A successful songwriter who was an adoptive and foster father to 28 children turned himself in to police yesterday after five boys in his care accused him of sexual abuse.

Thomas Cusick, 47, was charged with multiple counts of corruption of a minor, indecent assault and child endangerment. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 35 years in prison.

After his arraignment yesterday before District Justice John J. Kelly Jr., Cusick was released on $300,000 bail. A preliminary hearing date was set for Nov. 4, his lawyer Kevin M. Zlock said. Cusick has written songs for recording artists including Ricky Martin, Lionel Richie, Tony Orlando, Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond. He has lived since January 1998 in an affluent subdivision in Langhorne, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia.

Cusick previously lived in Staten Island, N.Y., where he began taking in children. Since 1972, he has been an adoptive or foster father to 24 boys and four girls, police said.

Police arriving at Cusick's home to arrest him Monday found that he and a woman police described as a live-in housekeeper already had cleared out their belongings, Middletown Township police Detective Andy Amoroso said.

The investigation started about one month ago, when a 17-year-old adopted son reported the alleged abuse to police, Rubenstein said. Authorities then interviewed four other boys living in the house, between 8 and 16 years old, who reported similar assaults, Rubenstein said.

Shortly after the investigation began, 11 of the 13 boys in Cusick's care were removed from the seven-bedroom home and placed in foster care, Rubenstein said. Two other adopted sons, both 19, moved out of the house Monday.

Charges also could be filed in Staten Island, according to the Richmond County, N.Y., district attorney's office. According to court documents, at least one assault took place there.

Zlock declined to comment on the charges, saying ''it would be best to respond to the allegations in the courtroom.''

The case ''points up a broad-scale weakness with our public adoption system. We're not spending enough time or resources to find or support adoptive families for hard-to-place children,'' said Frank Cervone, executive director of the Support Center for Child Advocates, a Philadelphia-based lawyer's volunteer program for abused and neglected children.

''But you can't deny the fact that this guy got through repeated screenings suggests that his pathology is deeper and more subtle than anybody could have detected,'' Cervone said.

Cusick, who has no prior criminal record, was married briefly in the early 1980s but adopted most of the children when he was single, authorities said. He received several awards and letters of commendation from adoption advocacy groups and community service programs, Rubenstein said.

Cervone said he hopes the case will not make would-be adoptive parents decide against bringing a child into their home.

''We can't let this tragedy make us afraid of adoption,'' Cervone said. ''We're concerned that this is going to do some damage.''

1999 Oct 27