WOMAN IS FINED IN ADOPTION CASE

Boston Globe

Author: Globe State House Bureau

A Plymouth woman who ran an illegal adoption agency was barred yesterday from finding and placing children and ordered to pay $35,000 in penalties and refunds to prospective parents.

Under the judgment entered yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court, Suzanne Champney, president of Los Ninos de Amor Inc. of Plymouth, was barred from providing any adoption services in Massachusetts without obtaining a license. Champney had operated without a license for more than five years before the attorney general's office filed suit against her in October 1984.

The complaint alleged that Champney repeatedly promised to provide children for adoption, accepted fees from prospective parents and then failed to deliver the promised children. The complaint also alleged that in several cases, Champney brought into the country children who were severely ill.

Under the judgment, more than $20,000 will go to couples who did not receive refunds after they attempted to adopt children through other agencies, while an additional $10,000 will remain in a fund for would-be adoptive parents who document that they were injured by Champney's practices.