Sex abuse claimed in adoptive family

The Cincinnati Post

Author: Associated Press

Dateline: SHELBYVILLE, Ind.

The divorce case of a couple who adopted 28 Haitian children now involves an allegation of sexual abuse, a claim brought by the mother of the wife and denied by the husband's attorney.

Doris Lortz told an Indianapolis television station that her daughter, Kathy Blackburn, filed for divorce last year because her husband, Dan, had sexually abused some of the adopted children.

"She filed primarily because of the sexual abuse . . . when one of the girls came to her," Ms. Lortz said of Kathy Blackburn during an interview Monday night with WISH-TV.

Attorney Kelly Baldwin, who represents Dan Blackburn in the divorce, dismissed the claims.

"Suffice it to say those allegations are totally false," Ms. Baldwin said Monday. "We have an emergency custody hearing a week from tomorrow. I think that will resolve the custody issues." Ms. Baldwin said that following the hearing "all those allegations will be put behind us . . ."

Ms. Lortz told the Indianapolis station that audiotaped discussions with the children recently delivered to the Shelbyville Police Department contain allegations that Dan Blackburn sexually abused the children.

Dan and Kathy Blackburn and the children have been ordered by a judge not to speak about the case. The gag order does not apply to Ms. Lortz, who claims that Dan Blackburn beat some of the boys.

"He has a violent temper," Ms. Lortz said.

Kathy Blackburn cited an "irretrievable breakdown of the marriage" in a petition for dissolution filed in December in Shelby Circuit Court. She has temporary custody of the 28 adopted children.

She also obtained a restraining order against her estranged husband, barring him from the family's home out of concern he would take or hide property or harass her.

He denied those allegations.

The couple was married Sept. 8, 1966. Of the 28 adoptees, only one, a 19-year-old, is over 18. The Blackburns also have two biological children.

The Blackburns served in Haiti from 1976 to 1987 as Christian Evangelical missionaries.

During that time, 17 boys and 11 girls were left abandoned at their doorstep.

Most were infants, and some were critically ill from malaria, dysentery or malnutrition. In 1993, the couple constructed a two-story, 12,000-square-foot dormitory-style home south of Shelbyville on donated land.

A group of pastors formed an association to keep the family adequately housed and fed.