Utah: Sewer Pit of the Adoption Industry

Jane

Kristi and Jared Frei have made good on their promise to fight the return of Terry Achane's nearly two-year-old to him. The girl was illegally handed over to the Utah couple early last year without the permission of her father, who was married to her mother, Teri Bland, at the time. As the legal husband of the mother, Achane can block any proposed adoption in any state.

The Freis' attorney, Larry Jenkins, also represents the unscrupulous adoption agency at the center of this case, Adoption Center of Choice, in American Fork. Jenkins has asked asked 4th District Judge Darold J. McDade to stay his order dismissing their adoption petition. He also asked that the couple be allowed to disregard the judge's order to prepare the little girl, now 21-months old, to be returned to her father by mid-January. That is the usual order of

Utah judge voids adoption, orders girl returned to her father

Lorraine

Utah keeps calling us back--this time with a SECOND good decision where a father is fighting for the right to raise his own daughter. One of our readers noted that a judge in the notoriously conservative 4th district (think BYU) overturned an illegal adoption and is giving the adoptive family 60 days to return the child to her biological father. The agency, Adoption Center of Choice, broke Utah's own law requiring the consent and relinquishment of the legal father, Terry Achane, since he and the girl's mother were married at the time. In every state, married fathers have the right to raise their own children.

The Provo judge, while noting the birth mother had deceived her husband, the adoption agency and the prospective parents, has given the adoptive couple 60 days to give the child back. According to Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune: