NY COUPLE GETS LIMITED CUSTODY OF INFANT GIRL
Bobette Riner
The Dallas Morning News
October 4, 1985
After commending a New York couple for their honesty in coming forward, a state district judge Thursday granted them temporary possession of the 10-month-old girl they paid a Dallas lawyer $14,000 to acquire.
Neil and Virginia Dauler-Phinney testified Thursday that they thought they had legally adopted the child, Rachel Marie Hagge, whom they have renamed McKenzie.
"I'm more than happy,' Mrs. Dauler-Phinney, of Huntington, N.Y., said after state District Judge Craig Penfold's decision Thursday. "I'm ecstatic.'
She and her husband, Neil, had come to Dallas with the child Tuesday to petition for adoption.
The couple testified Thursday that they thought their acquisition of the child was legal. They said a New York social worker had told the couple that the fee was a little high but in the range of most private-placement legal work.
The acquisition was handled by Robert I. Kingsley, who with his wife, Mary Zoe, has been charged with three counts of child-selling.
The child's natural mother, Tammy Hagge of Grand Prairie, who did not attend the hearing, met with the couple in her attorney's office Wednesday and relinquished her rights to the child, born Dec. 1, 1984, officials said.
After the child's birth, Ms. Hagge had arranged to have the girl adopted by a Cedar Hill couple related to a man she was dating. They, instead, sold the baby to Kingsley for about $1,200, who then arranged for the baby's "adoption' by the Dauler-Phinneys, according to testimony in previous hearings.
The New York couple became acquainted with Kingsley through friends who adopted a baby through him. Kingsley had worked with a New York law firm in handling adoptions in several states, authorities said.
Kingsley began calling them in October 1984, she said, and telling them of potential adoptions. Once, he quoted a fee of "roughly $12,000,' but the couple were in the process of moving to their current suburban home so they couldn't afford the fee.
On June 20, Kingsley called to say that "a 6 1/2-month-old girl was available immediately. The natural mother had relinquished all rights and the (former adoptive) couple had decided they could not afford' to care for the child, Mrs. Dauler-Phinney said. He asked for $14,000 in two checks: $5,000 in legal fees and a $9,000 check with "payee' left blank.
"He said that we had about two hours to decide,' she said. She said she got $9,500 from a trust fund left by her grandmother and she and her husband drove to Dallas when they could not get a flight from New York.
The Dauler-Phinneys picked up the infant at Kingsley's house June 23 and left for home the next day, she said.
Although the couple said they felt uncomfortable about leaving the check blank, Dauler-Phinney said Kingsley told them he would give them an accounting for the money later.
Kingsley called the couple in mid-September to let them know he was "in legal trouble' but "your case is secure,' Dauler-Phinney said.
They learned that the child was being sought when Kingsley's attorney, Mike Gibson, contacted them two weeks ago.
A final hearing is scheduled Nov. 1 before Penfold.