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High court sets aside adoption of `Internet twins'
By Kelly Wiese
Associated Press
03/30/2004
Tranda Wecker
(James A. Finley/AP)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A mother who twice offered her twin daughters for adoption over the Internet, then changed her mind, was wrongly denied her parental rights, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday while adding that the toddlers' subsequent adoption by foster parents should be set aside.
A judge in St. Louis had terminated Tranda Wecker's parental rights in December 2002, leading to the twins' adoption by a St. Louis couple last May.
It wasn't immediately clear Tuesday what the Supreme Court's 4-3 decision meant for the girls, who are now 3 years old.
Wecker, of St. Louis, has said she was broke and under stress when she decided to put the girls up for adoption in 2000. That's when a California couple said they paid an Internet broker $6,000 to adopt the girls.
But Wecker later decided the California couple were unfit and, joined by a British couple whom she believed would be better parents, took the twins from the California home.
Wecker and the British couple -- who said they paid $12,000 to the Internet broker -- drove with the girls to Arkansas, where a judge approved the adoption. An Arkansas judge later voided the adoption, and the twins were placed in state custody in Missouri.
As the case played out, Wecker became a tabloid sensation as the mother of the so-called "Internet twins."
In its ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court said the St. Louis judge who terminated Wecker's parental rights failed to document adequately the reasons for such a drastic step.
"The two attempts at placement of the twins for adoption may have been mistakes, and may even have harmed the twins, but no reported Missouri case has ever held that placing a child up for adoption more than once rises to the level of abuse," Judge Richard Teitelman wrote for the Supreme Court majority.
The court reversed the termination of Wecker's parental rights and sent the case back to the St. Louis judge.
Supreme Court Judge William Price, in a dissent joined by two other judges, said the trial court had properly considered the evidence in terminating her rights. Price said the majority opinion "interprets the statutes solely to promote the mother's interests at the expense of the twins' well-being."
Attorneys for Wecker had argued the adoption should not have been finalized before she exhausted her appeals.
They also said that for much of the time before the judge's decision, Wecker's children were in foster care because she was following procedures to regain custody, such as taking parenting classes and being evaluated by a psychologist.
"The fundamental liberty interest of natural parents in raising their children does not evaporate simply because they have not been model parents or have lost temporary custody of their children to the state," the court said.
Attorneys for Wecker and the St. Louis juvenile office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
By Kelly Wiese
Associated Press
03/30/2004
Tranda Wecker
(James A. Finley/AP)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A mother who twice offered her twin daughters for adoption over the Internet, then changed her mind, was wrongly denied her parental rights, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday while adding that the toddlers' subsequent adoption by foster parents should be set aside.
A judge in St. Louis had terminated Tranda Wecker's parental rights in December 2002, leading to the twins' adoption by a St. Louis couple last May.
It wasn't immediately clear Tuesday what the Supreme Court's 4-3 decision meant for the girls, who are now 3 years old.
Wecker, of St. Louis, has said she was broke and under stress when she decided to put the girls up for adoption in 2000. That's when a California couple said they paid an Internet broker $6,000 to adopt the girls.
But Wecker later decided the California couple were unfit and, joined by a British couple whom she believed would be better parents, took the twins from the California home.
Wecker and the British couple -- who said they paid $12,000 to the Internet broker -- drove with the girls to Arkansas, where a judge approved the adoption. An Arkansas judge later voided the adoption, and the twins were placed in state custody in Missouri.
As the case played out, Wecker became a tabloid sensation as the mother of the so-called "Internet twins."
In its ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court said the St. Louis judge who terminated Wecker's parental rights failed to document adequately the reasons for such a drastic step.
"The two attempts at placement of the twins for adoption may have been mistakes, and may even have harmed the twins, but no reported Missouri case has ever held that placing a child up for adoption more than once rises to the level of abuse," Judge Richard Teitelman wrote for the Supreme Court majority.
The court reversed the termination of Wecker's parental rights and sent the case back to the St. Louis judge.
Supreme Court Judge William Price, in a dissent joined by two other judges, said the trial court had properly considered the evidence in terminating her rights. Price said the majority opinion "interprets the statutes solely to promote the mother's interests at the expense of the twins' well-being."
Attorneys for Wecker had argued the adoption should not have been finalized before she exhausted her appeals.
They also said that for much of the time before the judge's decision, Wecker's children were in foster care because she was following procedures to regain custody, such as taking parenting classes and being evaluated by a psychologist.
"The fundamental liberty interest of natural parents in raising their children does not evaporate simply because they have not been model parents or have lost temporary custody of their children to the state," the court said.
Attorneys for Wecker and the St. Louis juvenile office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
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