Woman faces jail for keeping adoptee

St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)

METRO/REGIONAL BRIEFING

A Naples, Fla., woman who arranged international adoptions for agencies in Minnesota and other parts of the country pleaded guilty this week to bringing a Guatemalan infant into the U.S. under an assumed name and raising her as her own. Mary Bonn entered a guilty plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers to one count of harboring an illegal alien.

Bonn, a former St. Paul resident, had served as the main contact in Guatemala for a Washington state couple seeking to adopt baby Karen, born in May 2005. The girl's adoptive mother flew to the U.S. embassy in Guatemala to pick her up last year and expressed surprise that she was underweight and suffering from malnutrition.

The woman chose not to finalize the adoption and returned to the U.S. for additional medical testing and advice, according to the criminal complaint filed against Bonn. The child later disappeared, and the family hired a private investigator who tracked Karen to Bonn's home in December.

Karen has joined her adoptive family, said Bonn's attorney, Landon Miller. Bonn faces a maximum of five years in prison, but sentencing guidelines call for between 12 and 18 months as a result of her plea. Her sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 9.

-- Frederick Melo