A Pulaski County jury on Friday rejected Donna Gail Hight’s claims that she had no role in any wrongdoing at Adoption Advantage, a ruling that opens her up to fines that could top $180,000 and damages of more than $400,000.
State attorneys called the company’s operations an “outrageous scam” that preyed on emotionally vulnerable clients, at least one of whom had lost a child at birth.
Ending the five-day trial, the eight women and four men ruled unanimously that Hight, 46, not only violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, but that she is also responsible for violations by the company. However, jurors cleared her of any responsibility for theactions of the company’s owner - her ex-husband, Ed Webb.
Jurors deliberated about 75 minutes to reach their decision after 75 minutes of closing arguments. To win, either sided needed only a nine-member majority.
The decision on fines and damages will be made in the coming weeks by Pulaski County Judge Mackie Pierce based on submissions from the Arkansas attorney general’s office, which brought suit in 2010 against Hight, Webb and a former employee.
Webb was found in default in 2011 after failing to respond to the suit. His whereabouts are unknown. Hight said she last saw him in 2010 and testified that he could be in Mexico or Australia.
Adoption Advantage closed in 2009 when Webb, an attorney, gave up his adoption license under pressurefrom state regulators who were questioning his business operations because of client complaints. His law license has since been suspended for technical violations.
Jurors heard testimony this week from 18 ex-clients who claimed the company had duped them out of tens of thousands of dollars in fees - $404,249 in total - in an emotionally grueling process that lasted months, or even years, and left them as childless as they began.
In her closing arguments, Assistant Attorney General Cathi Compton told jurors that to believe Hight had done nothing wrong required them to believe that those former clients had lied.
“All 18 of these are so emotionally distraught … been through something so emotionally wrenching thatthey are confused and making things up? Are they demented by the experience? You know they are affected by it,” she said. “Since when does being emotionally affected cause you to come into a court of law and lie? They have nothing to gain by making up these stories. They wanted to have their voices heard for once.”
Compton compared what was done to the ex-clients to a bank robbery - except robbers go to prison, while Hight now operates another adoption agency, All For You Adoption and Family Services, in Tennessee.
“If you rob someone of their hopes, dreams and hearts and life savings, you go to Memphis and keep on adopting,” she told the jury.
Hight’s attorney, Marcia Barnes, called on jurors not to be swept away by the emotional testimony of the former clients. Adoption is stressful when it’s successful and more so when it’s not, she said, adding that the accusations against Hight and Adoption Advantage reflected that emotional turmoil.
“Was there really deception or were the adoptive parents’ feelings getting in the way of the facts?” she said. “It was painful for them to wait [to adopt]. When you’re in pain, you’re thinking about your pain.”
She disputed that any of their money had been wrongly used or lost by the agency, which she said had a number of successful adoptions. She acknowledged that the agency was expensive to run, but said that was because of its large staff of well-trained professionals who were passionate about putting children into loving homes.
Her client had no more power than any other employee, she said, and Adoption Advantage only came apart because Webb ran off the quality workers, including Hight, whom he fired in 2008 after Hight ended their 22-year marriage.
Adoption Advantage’s business model, which was based on finding new birth mothers willing to give up their children, demonstrates the agency was not a cheat, she said. If the company was about making money at all costs, it would have devoted more resources to attracting prospective parents, the people who pay the fees the company relied on, Barnes said.
The judge instructed the jury that to rule against Hight, jurors had to believe that she had deliberately made false representations about herability to facilitate adoptions. And he said they also had to believe that she either intentionally took advantage of emotionally vulnerable clients or engaged in “unconscionable, false or deceptive acts in business.”
The jurors also ruled unanimously against Hight’s co-defendant 55-year-old Jacklyn Potter of Jacksonville, who let Webb use her bank account to accept a $28,800 payment in November 2008 from an Iowa family.
Her attorney, Paul Schmidt, told jurors that Potter had been duped by Webb, who preyed on her good nature and her interest in keeping the agency running for its good work with families. She didn’t profit from the arrangement and it pushed her into bankruptcy, he said.
Compton called Potter a “nice lady” who knew she had done something illegal.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/27/2013