Adoption Ruling Deprives Foster Parents

The chairman of the Los Angeles County Children’s Services Commission Monday questioned whether the removal of a baby from foster parents who wanted to adopt him--for placement with strangers--is an instance of “the priority being given to the (bureaucratic) process . . . as opposed to what may be in the particular interest of the child.”

The distraught foster parents, Randy and Pam Williams of Duarte, appeared before the commission for a second time, having brought with them family portraits and a synopsis of events that deprived them of the infant they had named Daniel and helped to care for during his first three months of life.

Chairman Thomas Becket and other commissioners, calling the situation “heart-wrenching,” urged the couple to seek legal counsel to possibly reverse the placement, noting that the group itself has no legal authority. The prospective adoptive parents were not present at the hearing.

The commission also heard a report on the tangled matter from Catherine Tracy, chief deputy of Children’s Services. She said that under her department’s new “speedy” adoption procedures, “I don’t believe I had any choice” when she took the child from the Williamses last month and placed him with a couple she said had been waiting for nine years to adopt an infant.

Supervisors Seek Reversal

Several members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have tried individually to block the infant’s transfer.

The Williamses claim Daniel--a drug baby abandoned in a car in Covina four months ago--was removed from their care without a proper court hearing, without a child advocate to represent his interests, and in possible violation of state law.

Assistant County Counsel Larry Cory, saying he represents both the interests of the child and Children’s Services, said he had advised the Williamses to contact an attorney and to consider filing a motion in Juvenile Court for legal standing as de facto parents.

He said that “in this case the best interests of the child were served by placing him in the adoptive home, because the prospective parents had been thoroughly investigated and met all the requirements for a stable environment.”

The Williamses, whose social worker encouraged them to become foster parents as a prelude to adopting Daniel, said that they “were encouraged to bond with him, to name him, to spend as much time with him as we could.” They watched the frail blond infant double in weight, heard his first cooing and held him when he shook as he went through drug withdrawal. They sat at his side during hospitalizations.