Letter from James Marsh to DeAlvah Hill Simms, Esq.

January 19, 2007

DeAlvah Hill Simms, Esq.

Office of Child Advocate

3312 Northside Drive - Suite D250

Macon GA 31210-2591

Re: Investigation of Masha Allen

Dear Ms. Simms,

I have been the attorney for fourteen year old Masha Allen since August 3, 2005. Masha was adopted from Russia at age five by a pedophile named Matthew A. Mancuso and subjected to extensive sexual abuse, including sadomasochism, starvation, and forced exhibitionism. Masha is pictured in hundreds of child pornography images which are highly sought by pedophiles worldwide. Her image sets are among the most popular in the world and are possessed by upwards of 60% of child predators apprehended in the United States and Canada. In the last ten years, hundreds of pedophiles have been criminally prosecuted and imprisoned for possessing her images. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_Allen)

In December 2004, just six months after being adopted by 25 year old Lynn Ginn (who changed her name to Faith Allen after Pittsburgh Judge Cheryl Allen), Masha was forced to relocate from Pittsburgh to Georgia. Since then-in just two years-Faith and Masha have moved at least six times and Masha has attended three different schools.

In March 2006, Masha expressed a desire to commit suicide and was hospitalized with suicidal ideation and symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder. The psychiatric hospital that treated Masha recommended extensive therapy for her as well as a home therapeutic plan for Ms. Allen to follow. Despite these recommendations, and Masha's long-term and extensive history of abuse, Masha received no mental health treatment of any kind between February and November 2006. We also believe that she did not receive any mental health treatment between December 2004 and September 2005.

In August 2006, Masha reported neglect to her school guidance counselor in Douglasville, Georgia stating that she wanted to attend therapy and that Ms. Allen would not allow her to do so. I later learned that Masha we being physically abused and that this may have been one reason why Ms. Allen was refusing to seek mental health treatment for Masha.

On September 21, 2006, Masha told me that she would rather return to live with Matthew Mancuso than remain in Ms. Allen's home. Shortly thereafter she moved into the home of a neighbor and friend of the family who eventually reported Masha's neglect to DFACS. Masha was removed from this home by the Douglasville sheriff at the request of Ms. Allen's attorney, but was almost immediately hospitalized in Atlanta at Peachford Behavioral Health System with suicidal ideation. Within days, however, Masha was released to her mother and her mother's attorney.

In early October, state DFACS Field Program Specialist Diane Aiken was assigned to the case. After hearing nothing for several weeks, we faxed and mailed her the enclosed packet. Over a week passed and when Ms. Aiken failed to follow up, we contacted her by telephone. She commented that we had given her a great deal of information to review which is why she failed to contact us earlier.

When we mentioned to her that Masha had a DSM-IV diagnosis of PTSD from Pittsburgh and needed immediate mental health treatment, Ms. Aiken remarked that she was not familiar with the DSM-IV and that, in fact, she did not even know what it was. When we explained that it is the standard manual used in evaluating and treating mental health disorders she was equally perplexed and confessed that she did not have any clinical background or training.

Ms. Aiken admitted that Masha was still not receiving any mental health treatment almost six weeks after her hospitalization for suicidal ideation and that Ms. Allen's attorney was "obstructing the investigation" and had limited her ability to properly interview Masha. She reported that she was going to try "one more time" and that she would likely be closing the case since she could not conduct a proper investigation. Ms. Allen later reported that she was told that hitting children is permitted in Georgia "according to the case workers" and that her physical abuse of Masha was therefore allowed and the investigation closed.

Ms. Aiken was unaware that the family had moved yet again, this time across the county line from Douglas to Carroll county. Ms. Allen reportedly sold all her furniture, automobiles and other household possessions and essentially became homeless. She and Masha then moved into a single family home with another family at an undisclosed location in Villa Rica, Georgia. I believe there are teenaged boys and adult men living at that location. I also have reason to believe that there are other transients coming in and out of the home.

I believe that Masha is currently receiving inappropriate mental health services for attachment disorder. Masha was never diagnosed with attachment disorder or anything remotely similar and needs intensive psychotherapy to address her long history of abuse and neglect. She was receiving 12 hours of mental health services per week in Pittsburgh before she left almost two years ago. She then had no treatment for almost a year, followed by four months of treatment, and then nothing again for almost another year.

Masha is a child who was stabbed in the neck by her drunken mother at age three. She was placed into a Russian orphanage where she fought for her life on a daily basis. At age five she was trafficked internationally to be the sex slave and concubine to a 40 year old pedophile.

She was raped, sexually abused and photographed thousands of times. Now she has been adopted again into an equally exploitive and unstable situation. In short, Masha has been exploited over and over again for her entire life. Treating her for attachment disorder and trying to further brainwash her to accept and embrace her current abusive situation is cruel and places her at additional and increased risk for suicide.

In addition, the Georgia authorities have refused and utterly failed to investigate Ms. Allen's extensive history of mental illness. There are significant red flags which have been ignored by everyone in Georgia dealing with this case. It almost seems like there is a concerted effort to bury this entire matter and make it go away.

Despite our possession of thousands of pages of Masha's mental health history, no one in Georgia has requested her records from us. Whenever we call DFACS, they refuse to speak with us citing confidentiality. Ms. Aiken showed no interest in obtaining any further information from us in this or any other regards. Most disturbing of all, Peachford Behavioral Health System refused to return my numerous calls thereby placing their patient Masha Allen at further risk for suicide and other injury. To date they have not responded to my October letter which is enclosed. I am sure they receive both state and federal funds.

Finally, no one in Georgia has taken any steps to secure Masha's significant financial assets in terms of her trust, or to file requests for restitution in the dozens of criminal prosecutions now pending against individuals who have downloaded her images. In the chapter I wrote on foster care adoption in Matthew Bender's Adoption Law and Practice, I stress that the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act requires that states like Georgia consider a child's health and safety as "paramount" in any efforts to preserve or reunify the child's family. Mental health is a critical aspect when evaluating health and safety. This clear federal mandate appears to have been ignored in Masha's case, especially considering that she was assigned a caseworker who did not even know about the DSM -IV!

I graduated from the University of Michigan Law School's Child Advocacy Law Clinic and am the founder, former executive director and current board merrLber of the nationally recognized Children's Law Center in Washington, DC which received the Outstanding Legal Advocacy Award during my tenure.

I was recently a senior fellow at the Center for Adoption Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and have represented hundreds of children in adoption, civil rights, special education, child welfare, custody, visitation and paternity proceedings before state and federal trial and appellate courts.

I have appeared on CourtTV, CNN, Nancy Grace and The O'Reilly Factor as a commentator on children's law and adoption issues. I have been quoted in

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in Disputed Paternity Proceedings, both by Matthew Bender. My lectures include

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I am sharing this information with you not to boast or brag, but because I have a demonstrated knowledge and commitment to the field of child welfare, abuse, neglect and adoption. Masha is one of the most exploited children I have ever encountered. There is almost nowhere in the United States where she can receive the adequate treatment, care and supervision that she desperately requires. Ironically she is an incredibly wealthy child with access to resources which even well-to-do children do not enjoy. Unfortunately even this has been squandered given her current exploitive situation.

It is now up to you, as the Georgia Child Advocate for the Protection of Children, to make sure that Masha is safe and that her critical mental health needs are addressed and that her current situation is thoroughly investigated. This is a child who has experienced so much abuse and exploitation that clearly the State of Georgia can not and must not condone, excuse and turn a blind eye the ongoing physical and mental abuse she continues to suffer.

Please investigate Masha's case as soon as possible. I remain ready and willing to assist in any capacity. Thank you.

Very truly yours,

James R. Marsh