NY foster agencies settle suit by kids for $17.5M
MIAMI— Three private New York foster care agencies will pay $17.5 million to settle a lawsuit by eight people who were fraudulently adopted by a woman and claimed they were repeatedly abused, starved and imprisoned in a “house of horrors,” attorneys said.
The lawsuit was filed in 2009 in Brooklyn federal court on behalf of the children whom Judith Leekin, 67, adopted over an eight-year period ending in 1996. Howard Talenfeld, one of the attorneys for the now grown children, said the settlement was approved Monday.
Authorities say Leekin deprived the children of medical care and school. The suit said Leekin fostered at least 22 children. One is missing and presumed dead.
The suit charged that Leekin was able to carry out a scam in which she fraudulently collected $1.68 million in adoption subsidies because the city’s Administration for Children’s Services didn’t do its job. The city of New York City settled its share of the lawsuit in 2012 and agreed to pay $9.7 million. The city did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.