Sound Off Louisiana

Craig Mills & His Family

In our latest Sound Off Louisiana feature, we continue our investigative series entailing alleged adoption scams in Louisiana.  Viewers will recall from segment one that alleged scam victim Craig Mills filed civil litigation over his allegations entailing his attempted adoption of a son who is the biological brother of his adopted daughter, Morgan.  Mills alleges impropriates and/or conflicts on the part of Louisiana licensed social worker and adoption attorney Lisa Pecquet Harell.  The case was assigned to 19th JDC Judge Todd Hernandez.  The most recent hearing entailing the matter transpired on April 10, 2017.  Sound Off Louisiana attended the proceeding.

In essence, Harell’s attorney, Chris Whittington, argued that biological parents have a constitutional right to change their minds entailing who will adopt their baby.  Mills’ attorney, Crystal Bounds, acknowledged that fact but emphasized that her clients “have the right not to be scammed.”  She emphasized that Harell knew full well the biological parents were “double dipping” entailing multiple prospective adoptive parents but permitted the alleged scam to continue to be perpetrated.  Whittington also argued that any action by the Mills family should be prescribed based on his assertion that a home study, which Harell conducted for the Mills family, is only valid for one year unless a request is made to renew the study for another year, which he contended Mills did not do.  Judge Hernandez took the matter under advisement and, on May 24, 2017, he issued a ruling denying both of Harell’s exceptions (exceptions of no right of action and prescription).  Thus, though Harell may appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeal, the case remains ongoing.  Harell already appealed Hernandez having denied a previous peremptory exception of no cause of action, and the First Circuit declined to even hear the matter.  Bounds argued that the most recent hearing before Judge Hernandez was a mere “copy and paste” of that previous exception hearing.

In this segment, Mills elaborates entailing what he contends is indifference and/or ineffectiveness on the part of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) entailing preventing adoption scams in Louisiana.

Mills discusses the indifference and/or ineffectiveness of DCFS at preventing Louisiana adoption scams.
CLICK HERE for an adoption ad in Common Cents which Mills references as being inappropriate, and
CLICK HERE for an ad by the adoption agency Mills is suing with the language he argues is inappropriate highlighted.

One alarming aspect of this whole case centers around Harell’s early-on efforts to seal this entire case from public scrutiny.  Clearly, the public would not be well-served in being denied this opportunity to delve into potential serious problems in the Louisiana adoption market.  Those problems were pretty well documented in this LSU Law Center publication regarding the subject.

If an adverse judgment against Harell ultimately results from Mills’ civil lawsuit against her, it won’t be the first such adverse ruling.  In 2005, Harell was cited by the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners for failing to actually conduct an in-person home study, falsely representing that she had in fact done so, and failing to maintain fee charges and billing documentation for the statutorily-required six-year period.

We look forward to delivering Part IV of this fascinating series, during which Mills voices his concerns entailing Louisiana State Police (LSP) and its investigations (or lack thereof) involving Louisiana adoption scams very soon.

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Craig Mills and his family.

In our most recent Sound Off Louisiana feature, we introduced Mr. Craig Mills, who alleges he is the victim of an adoption scam.  In July of 2012, Mills pursued the adoption of his daughter, Morgan (pictured above).  Though there were a few glitches (most notably the birth mother demanding $500 cash before signing the paperwork, an overture which Mills did not conform because he knew such payments to be illegal), the adoption was finalized in October of 2013.  The biological parents arrived in Louisiana from Oregon.  They were homeless and living under a tree behind Cash’s Casino in Port Allen.

In February of 2014, Mills was notified that Morgan’s biological parents were once again expecting a baby, and he was called upon to adopt the baby and thereby keep Morgan and her sibling together.  This time the biological parents were residing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Mills and his wife agreed to adopt the baby.  In the following video, Mills outlines historical problems within Louisiana’s adoption process and demonstrates how irregularities of 30-40 years ago have only become even more prolific in the present-day Louisiana adoption industry.

Mills provides a historical perspective of Louisiana adoptions and provides insight
on modern-day “incentivization” of pregnant young women from out-of-state to relocate
to Louisiana to give birth to their babies due to Louisiana’s lax adoption statutes.
CLICK HERE for the Washington Post article Mills references.
CLICK HERE for the evidence of the revenue Mills references entailing a
Louisiana nonprofit adoption agency in Louisiana.

Now, recall above that Mills was called upon to adopt Morgan’s sibling.  Imagine how heartbroken and sickened he felt to be informed at the last minute, “You lost.”  Unbeknownst to Mills, he was in competition with two other prospective adoptive families, and he was even told “the last adoptive family in the process typically gets the child.”  Mills’ response (as depicted near the end of the above video):  “I didn’t know I was in a competition.”

When Mills and the biological parents of Morgan were connected, the parents were expecting a boy.  Mills and his wife had therefore decided to name the young man Clarke.  Instead, a beautiful young girl, whom we had the pleasure to meet on Monday, May 22, 2017 (and who welcomed us as a guest in her home and bid us a heartfelt “good bye” as we departed), was born.  When Mills was called upon to adopt the biological parents’ second child, they were again told it would be a boy, and the mother said, “Now you’ll have a son whom you can name Clarke.”  As depicted on the end of the above video, Mills is dedicated to trying to prevent more episodes similar to his and, in that regard, he has formed The Clarke Mills Project to, as indicated on the Facebook page:

“Help other families in our situation with counseling and education, so they do not wander in the dark alone.  Additionally, where warranted, we will provide funding to hold those accountable for their unprofessional or unethical actions.  For those lawmakers in Louisiana and for those adoption ‘professionals’ who use Louisiana families as their personal ATMs; we are not going away.”

We look forward to delivering Installment 3 of this fascinating series in coming days.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future Sound Off posts, simply scroll to the very bottom of this page (mobile devices) or to the end of the right-hand column (desktops) and supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above. 

Craig Mills and his family.

In our latest Sound Off Louisiana feature, we introduce Mr. Craig Mills, who sounds off on allegations of massive adoption scams in Louisiana and his frustration that law-enforcement agencies, rather than assisting the victims of the scams, simply ignore the epidemic and that the licensed clinical social workers who coordinate with Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) actually assist those perpetrating the scams to pull them off!

We will be providing a multi-part series on Mills’ encounters and his allegations.  In today’s feature, we introduce him by way of providing a little background and testimony he provided entailing HCR-79 of the 2016 Louisiana legislative session.

Introductory background of Craig Mills and his House Committee testimony.

Mills has filed civil litigation over his encounters in which he alleges improprieties and/or conflicts on the part of Louisiana licensed social worker and adoption attorney Lisa Pecquet Harell.  The case was assigned to 19th JDC Judge Todd Hernandez.  The most recent hearing entailing the matter transpired on April 10, 2017.  Sound Off Louisiana attended the proceeding and made these notations.  Judge Hernandez took the matter under advisement, and he issued a ruling on May 24, 2017 denying both of defendant’s exceptions (no right of action and prescription).

We look forward to delivering Part II of this intriguing series to include one-on-one interview questions with Mills in coming days!

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future Sound Off posts, simply scroll to the very bottom of this page (mobile devices) or to the end of the right-hand column (desktops) and supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.