Kids adopted by child molester become victims of judicial oversight
Kids adopted by child molester become victims of judicial oversight
By Laura Berman
The Detroit News
Scott D. Francis isn't rich or charming or handsome. But he has an unsettling way of getting what he wants.
When the convicted pedophile wanted his kids back, he got them.
As it turned out, all he had to do was ask.
Five years ago, the 41-year-old Northville man molested a young girl who was living in the foster home of Francis' mother. Francis became a licensed foster parent and tried to adopt her, officials say.
When his young victim was instead awarded to a couple, Francis adopted a brother and sister, now 9 and 11.
The girl he had molested called authorities after she learned of the adoptions, and the criminal justice system charged ahead.
Francis was tried twice in Wayne County Circuit Court on rape charges. After the second jury deadlocked, the prosecutor reluctantly agreed to a misdemeanor plea deal the judge called "not unjust ... but lenient."
He pleaded no contest to two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a misdemeanor.
Francis got five years' probation and a severe lecture from Wayne County Judge Brian Sullivan about not having contact with children and not having unsupervised contact with his own children.
But -- oops -- the court clerk forgot to include any details about children in the probation order. And the judge signed it anyway.
The kids, living with Grandma, didn't have a lawyer. Over the river and through the woods in Northville, Grandma's house was the very same residence where Francis had already preyed on that young girl.
Can you guess what happened next?
Francis, who briefly metamorphosed into a barricaded gunman on the evening news, is now being charged with raping his son.
In a winding chain of professionals trying to do their jobs, the professionals can all say they did them.
The assistant prosecutor, Danielle Hagaman, wanted desperately to protect those two kids. But she's a criminal prosecutor, not a social worker, and she never saw or approved the deficient probation order.
"I feel horrible," she told me, saying that she has no expertise in the family court system. "This is exactly what we were trying so hard to prevent."
The probation officer didn't see anything about kids in the written order and decided that meant Francis could probably have them back. Oh well.
The Michigan Department of Corrections didn't notify the Family Independence Agency that a convicted pedophile was being released or suggest that checking up on the kids might be a good idea. Such notification is not standard procedure.
The Family Independence Agency, which had investigated the Scott Francis home after he was first charged with rape, did not immediately revisit the case.
Everybody was working. They were making phone calls, issuing orders, signing papers.
But nobody -- not the judge, not the prosecutor, not the probation officer -- even considered challenging Scott Francis' right to father children he'd adopted within months of molesting another child.
In a criminal proceeding, the kids weren't part of anyone's job description. Overlooked and under-protected by the criminal justice system, they were afterthoughts to everyone but their dad, the convicted pedophile.
Michigan residents should Google "Terry Fesler" for information about CPS or FIA in Michigan.