Suspect in Adoption Scam Arrested on Theft Charge

A former Van Nuys woman being investigated on suspicion of asking for money from more than a dozen couples for the rights to adopt her unborn child has been arrested in Tennessee on an unrelated theft charge, authorities said Tuesday.

Leanne Dees, 27, whose whereabouts had been unknown since Los Angeles police and FBI agents began investigating her in November, was arrested Monday in Memphis on a grand theft warrant from Arkansas alleging she failed to return a rented power paint sprayer, police said.

Los Angeles police said they had been hoping to find Dees since she left a Van Nuys apartment in November.

No charges have been brought against Dees in the alleged adoption incidents. Los Angeles police said the FBI joined the investigation because Dees allegedly negotiated for financial support from 12 to 14 people in at least three states, all of whom thought they would be able to adopt the child she was carrying.

Police said it is illegal for a mother to accept money under an adoption agreement if she does not intend to honor it.

Dees, who police said has given up five previous children for adoption, and her 37-year-old husband, Frankie, came to investigators’ attention in November when a Los Angeles woman reported that she had paid more than $9,000 to house and support the couple in Van Nuys after agreeing to adopt Leanne Dees’ unborn child.

The woman, Debbie Freeman, 39, told police she discovered through an adoption attorney that the couple had been negotiating with other people for financial support in return for allowing them to adopt the same baby.

Police said that when Freeman told the couple by telephone that she knew of the others, they vanished. Police later discovered that Leanne Dees gave birth to a boy on Dec. 7 in Las Vegas, while yet another couple expecting to adopt the child waited in the hospital. However, police said, Dees checked out without turning the child over for adoption and her whereabouts were unknown until her arrest.

Los Angeles Police Detective Mel Arnold said reports on the Deeses carried in newspapers and television programs such as “Hard Copy” and “Inside Edition” resulted in numerous calls to police from people who said they had negotiated with the Deeses and thought the couple’s child would be theirs to adopt.

“There were all left hanging, high and dry,” Arnold said.