Leekin court hearing postponed

Post St.Lucie woman accused of neglecting 11 adopted kids

Tyler Treadway

FORT PIERCE — A change-of-plea hearing scheduled Wednesday for a Port St. Lucie woman accused of mistreating and neglecting 11 adopted children has been postponed to 4 p.m. Feb. 4.

The hearing for Judith Leekin, 63, will be before Circuit Judge Robert Belanger in the St. Lucie County Courthouse in downtown Fort Pierce.

Leekin was arrested in July 2007 and charged with 10 felonies (an 11th recently was added) alleging she abused and neglected children she adopted in New York City between July 1998 and April 1996 using fake names and aliases. She moved with the children to Port St. Lucie in 1998.

In July, a federal judge in New York City sentenced Leekin to 130 months in prison for defrauding the New York state adoption system out of $1.68 million.

Assistant State Attorney Jeff Hendriks, a prosecutor in Leekin’s St. Lucie County case, said the plea deal will include the 20-year cap on Leekin’s prison term.