The divorced couple who ran a now-defunct Little Rock adoption agency, labeled an “outrageous scam” by authorities, should be fined $480,000 - at $10,000 per victim - and forced to pay the victims more than $1 million in restitution, state lawyers claim in recently filed court papers.
Those victims reached beyond Arkansas to at least seven other states - Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, Nebraska, Iowa and Georgia - according to court files.
The petition from Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel’s office comes almost three months after a Pulaski County jury ruled after trial that Adoption Advantage Inc. violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, with former operator Donna Gail Hight, 46, found tobe partially responsible for company operations.
Hight denied any wrongdoing at her week-long trial in April, saying that her husband owned and ran the company with little input from her and that she had no control of its obligations.
A phone number for Hight, a registered nurse, could not be found. She now operates All For You Adoption and Family Services in Tennessee. Her attorney filed notice on Friday that she is no longer representing Hight.
Hight’s ex-husband, 51-year-old Norris Edward “Ed” Webb, also was deemed responsible for the company in a 2011 court proceeding after he dropped out of sight and did not respond to court notices. The couple divorced in 2009 after 22 years of marriage. Hight, who has seven children with Webb, includ-ing one adopted, testified she has not seen him since 2010.
The attorney general’s office filed its consumer-protection lawsuit in 2010. Webb, an attorney, surrendered the agency’s licensing and closed the 16-yearold company in 2009 under pressure from state regulators and angry customers.
In the petition by Assistant Attorney General Cathi Compton, filed Wednesday with the presiding judge, Mackie Pierce, state attorneys also are asking that the defendants be barred from having any role in adoptions in Arkansas or involving any Arkansas resident, regardless of whether they are working for a licensed out-of-state agency.
The attorney general’s office also is asking to be awarded $8,577 to recoup its expenses, noting that the investigation into Adoption Advantage began in 2007.
The final decision on fines, expenses and restitution is up to the judge, who has not said when he would rule. Hight’s as-yet-unnamed attorney willhave an opportunity to object to the state’s request. Under the deceptive-trade law, the judge can issue a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation.
At the April trial, jurors heard testimony from 18 former Adoption Advantage clients who said the company had duped them out of their money, sometimes in a process that lasted years, with repeated promises they would be getting children, but no adoption was ever completed. They described paying out $404,249 altogether to the company between February 2005 and November 2008.
The total restitution, $1,042,704, includes eight claimants, representing $162,401 in claims, the state has lost touch with so they have not submitted the required paperwork to collect restitution, according to the filing. According to the Wednesday filing, which adds the claims of 28 victims, who can be individuals or couples, to the witnesses who testified, customers paid from $6,800 to $32,850 to the company.
In trial arguments, Compton compared what was done to victims to bank robbery,saying that their hopes, dreams and life savings had been stolen by Hight’s operation. The difference was, Compton said, was that bank robbers go to prison while Hight just shifted her work to Tennessee.
The petition also includes a request to fine a former Adoption Advantage employee, Jacklyn Potter of Jacksonville, $20,000 for her role in the deceptive-trade violations and order her to repay, with Hight and Webb, $25,900 to two other victims, the filing states. The jury found that Potter had let Webb improperly use her bank account to collect a payment from a client.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 06/23/2013