“I
remember it every restless night…
But
you’re still spitting fire
Makes
no difference what you say
You’re
still a liar”
-Sinead
O’Connor
Back on Aug.
24, the redoubtable Mary Mooney had emailed us, as she frequently does.
This
time it was major news.
She was
in the process of gathering together the files kept on agencies by regulators in
each state, obtained under the various open-records laws, so she could send out
copies to anyone who asked, making it easier to access that information.
She had
recently gotten info on Building Blocks from what was now, under a new governor
in Ohio, called the Department of Job and Family Services.
Would
we like to see it? It was a three-inch-thick file and had stuff from our
complaint plus others.
“[It’s]
not much,” she said, “but BB was found out of compliance on some things.”
Of
course we wanted to see it, volunteering to reimburse Mary for her postal
expenses as well as returning the originals promptly once we had made our own
photocopies.
It
took her a while, and it wasn’t until after 9/11 and just before the anthrax
scares that we got the parcel — Mary
Hutchison’s complaint, and the ODHS’s investigative response, as well as
our own.
I was
at work. Anguel was at preschool. Daniel returned from dropping him off and
running some errands one went fall morning to find the package on our front
porch.
So, he
had the chance to be the first to review it at his leisure (so to speak).
It was
a little lighter than it would otherwise have been, as Mary Mooney had quite sensibly
removed the lengthy timeline that made up our own complaint, the acorn from
which this website grew.
The top
of the file was the Hutchison material.
In the absence
of any other, more public statement, this response to our complaint stands as
her say.
Linda
recorded receiving it on Feb. 25, 2000. It
appears to have been written by Denise Hubbard at her behest, without any
reference to our narrative (i.e., not in direct rebuttal of it).
Paralleling our own complaint, it takes the form of a timeline with supporting documents
— email exchanges between Denise and ourselves, a medical form we were never
sent to fill out from the late Dr. Downing’s organization, and our “smoking gun”
— a letter sent to Richard J. Marco, Jr. in February 2000.
Denise Hubbard,
by writing this, proved to us once and for all what a self-serving liar she is.
Her timeline of our
events in Russia and our relationship is filled with inaccuracies and
falsehoods so gross that they cannot be the result of mere slipshod attention to detail but
rather a deliberate and systematized effort to obscure the truth of the affair.
She
even had the gall to submit a document, a page from Eric Downing’s website
warning about medical issues she claimed to have mailed to us prior to
our departure for Russia ... yet it was quite pointedly not a copy signed by us
in the appropriate space that would have indicated our receipt! Obviously we had
never received it (much less even known it existed until we read this load of
crap), and it had never been sent, regardless of what she told the ODJFS.
The letter that she wrote and sent to Richard J. Marco, Jr. was
proof positive to us of her campaign to ostracize and isolate us while we waited for
Anguel.
It is
such a damning document that we have decided to post it here, in its entirety,
on our site, in this chapter.
There are
more than grave inaccuracies in this report. There are actual attempts to
smear us.
The
worst is Denise’s attempt to depict Daniel and I as callous and venal, in it only
for the the adoption tax credit. She doesn’t even
mention Cyril’s name ... the true mark of a party both consciously guilty and
uncaring over these events.
There are incorrect dates, there is the incredible
concoction she came up with putting the blame on us for Linda Wright rejecting
Yekaterina and the hint that my husband and I went out on the town partying after
Cyril’s death. In short: a sick, mendacious document.
Daniel
is, as you patient and careful readers have probably already noticed, often the
one who had to calm me down at my angriest moments. Nonetheless, he told me, as he
read this he was sitting at our kitchen table practically screaming at the paper
at some points.
We took
the extraordinary step of getting in touch with Linda Wright again and sending
her a copy of this.
For
the record, Linda Wright would like to vehemently state, confidentiality
agreement or not, that at no time did
Daniel or I tell her to reject Yekaterina. In an email on Oct. 2,
Linda stated to me: “I really don’t like being lied
about ... it was my decision
not to adopt due to lies that I was told concerning the health of Katerina.”
She wants to make absolutely clear that she made her decision WHEN
YEKATERINA WAS
PRESENTED TO HER AT THE ORPHANAGE and not when she saw us with Cyril dead
between us in the hotel lobby.
Days
later, unaware of this, Linda would sign an agreement that gave her a rather
paltry refund — $2,500 — in exchange for effectively surrendering her right
to rebut this.
Without
comment, here is what Denise sent to her own state licensing commission. If
you would like to see this for yourself, ask
the ODJFS for “Complaint Review #4-5-00, Agency #259.”
Those of you who paid close and careful attention to the first half of our story
may feel just as outraged at this assault on the truth as we were.
3-20-99
Received Contract from Case Family to Adopt one child beween 1-2 years of age.
Boy preferred. Sent Welcome packet.
9-9-99
Copy of Dossier received from Case family. Question Ms. Case on her one
Reference that she wrote. It looked like she wrote it and signed another
name? She advised that you need to do what you need to do to get through
this mess. And she would do anything to adopt a child. The truth did
not matter she said, as long as you get what you want. Told her this was
not proper and I was not pleased.
9-24-99
Sent video referral, boy, to Case Family. Advised Cases to review medical
and video of child and send to physician to review. Advised Cases the child looked malnourished and had typical
Russian Medical. Sent medical doctor list with video. Sent the
Case’s info from Dr. D’s site. In reference to interpreting the
Russian Medical. Advised Cases video was not that good. Advised them
they should request an updated video.
9-30-99
Called Cases to see if they need anything before they go to Bulgaria. She
is traveling by herself. Dan is staying home.
10-1-99
Received Fax copy of medical from Cases. Advised they sent video to
Physician. Advise Physican said child was malnourished and with food and
love child would be ok. I sent the request to the Russian Rep for the
Cases to adopt this child.
10-2-99
Ask Case Family to write a letter to the Perm Min of Ed to request an updated
video. Elizabeth advised they did not need an updated video, she did not
want to delay bringing the child home. I advised Elizabeth it was in her
best interest to write a letter and request a video. I sent her a sample
letter to go from.
10-5-99
Sent the Cases the Court petition to complete on child.
10-7-99
Receieved Court Petition, signed and Notarized, Faxed Petition to Russian Rep.
10-14-99
Received the letter I
drafted from the Cases stating that they wanted a new video of the child. Faxed the request to Dennis G.
Received
video [redacted] and child [redacted] from Bulgaria. She told me he
was very healthy and could not believe how attached he was. He cuddled her
and she threw him up in the air and said he needs more ruff and tumble to become
tuff. She said she was very happy with him and could not wait to get him
home. She said she knew the baby from Russia needed more one on one and
the time between getting the baby home and bringing Anguel home would give her
and Dan time to bond and make the child healthy.
10-28-99
Called Cases ref. Visa invite. Helped them with completely forms and
filing through San Francisco.
11-1-99
Case advised INS approval for Anguel came in. Told her to get it N/C/A
11-8-99
Advised Case of hotel options and that they were to leave on the 16th.
Advised they could come home on Dec 3. Advised them they needed to carry a
new PP and we faxed a copy to Dennis.
11-10-99
Received Travel Itinerary for Case family from Russian Rep. Advised Cases
to review Itinerary and any questions to ask.
11-11-99
Advised Wendy [Stamper] to Call Cases before the leave for Russia. Also
advise them an updated video is being sent to them and they could get it
reviewed.
11-22-99
Called Cases in Russia to see how the court went and the visit with the child.
Cases advised court went ok and the child was ill from the flu. I advised
Cases to take a thermometer to he orphanage and offer meds. To the doctor for
the child if the doctor was OK with it. I advised them to listen to what
Genady told them to do and the director
11-23-99
Received a call from the Russian rep advised Cases were upset about not having
the child. I called the Cases and they advised me the orphanage doctor
said the child was still ill and wanted them to leave the child. I advised
them they should, then they advised after a lengthy conversation that the doctor
then said the child’s fever was gone and they could take him back to the hotel
to bond. I asked Ms. Case if the child had diaherra? Vomiting? Is
the child eating? She advised he was taking his bottles and he had diaper rash.
She said she knew he was ill but thought he had a better chance with her taking
care of him rather than the orphanage. I asked her if she had pedialyte,
bottles, diapers, diaper rash crème etc. she advised she had what was needed
and was prepared for a sick child, since she knew he was going to be sick from
her investigation of Russian adoption. I told her to contact Genady if the
child got worse or if she needed to take him to the doctors. She said she
would. I asked her about [h]is development and she advised he was starting to
crawl, hold himself up and she saw a change in him and th[at] it would take time
for him to catch up and she knew that.
11-23-99
I spoke with Rep. Advised him of conversation with the Case family. The Case
family told the rep in Russia they did not like it there, she kept saying how
much better Bulgaria was and the orphanages in Bulgaria were better. I
told the rep. That Cases were advised to contact Genady if they needed anything.
11-25-99
Received call from Rep. Ref. Case child passed away that morning. I asked
the rep. How the Cases were? Cause of death etc. He advised they
were being taken care of by his staff in Russia. I asked him for the
number of the Hotel and called Mrs. Case with the assistance of my assistant
Wendy Stamper, who was on the phone call the entire conversation. We
advised her of our sorrow for her and asked if there was anything we could do.
She said “no” and asked why we would be calling, were we afraid she was
going to sue us. I advised her no, it never entered my mind and my only
reason for calling was to ensure that they knew I was there for them and wanted
to assist them and support them in anyway I could. Wendy told Elizabeth
that a lawsuit was not why we called but we called because we were concerned
about her and her husband. I asked them if they wanted me to come to
Russia, they advised No, they were all right. I asked Elizabeth if she
wanted to go over what happened and she told me that the child was fine all day,
she said the child had diarrhea and a sore bottom, he was eating and starting to
advance developmentally. She said she was holding him trying to get him to
eat from her bottle and her words, were [“]that he just up and died[“].
She said her husband was doing mouth to mouth on the child and that she went for
help. She advised the reps were helpful and supportive and met their every
needs. She said the police interrogated them and they understood that they
needed to do this. She told me it was Gods will for the child to die. She
said she was meant to be in Russia to hold him until his last breath. She
advised that she was just glad to be there for the boy. I told her to call
me or get word to me so I can help in anyway I could.
Ms.
Case said that she encouraged Ms. Wright not to adopt her baby girl. She
said that she told her that her baby would die also and that probably all babies
would. I spoke with Ms. Wright and she said that Ms. Case felt strongly
that she should not adopt or bring any child home from Russia. Ms. Wright
advised she was then to[o] afraid to adopt and she was there herself and had no
one there to support her and she felt bad for the Cases. She said Mrs.
Case kept telling her and scaring her about adoption. Even though Ms.
Wright said her child was playing, crawling and very active and even grabbed her
face. She just did not know what to do. So she said she would not
adopt because Ms. Case said it was not the right choice for a single mother to
adopt.
I
spoke with Mr. Case who advised that he could not believe the child just up and
died. The child was doing so much better and was starting to crawl and he
could see light in his son’s eyes. Mr. Case advised that he knew that it
was meant to be for the child to pass in their loving arms, he know the child is
in heaven.
11-25-99
I spoke again with the Rep. He advised that the Cases would need to stay in
Russia until the judge advises they could leave. They would need to investigate the child’s death but
believed it was due to the viral infection and dehydration.
11-27-99
Called Medina Travel to req. flight changes for the Cases.
11-27-99
Advised Cases of the flight changes. I called her to ask her of her mental
status also, and she advised she did not know why I was calling or being nice,
that she was not going to sue me. I advised her it was the furthest thing
from my mind, again. She advised she needs to think about the adoption of
the boy from Bulgaria. I advised her that was fine. She asked about the money
for the “dead child”. I told her that of course the foreign fee would
be refunded. That was not an issue. She said at least she would get
to deduct this child in 99, it was not all a loss.
11-27-99
I contacted Atty. Rick Marco ref. The Cases terrible loss. I advised him
of what we were doing. He advised to be there for them and I told him we
were. He said he was there if we needed any assistance or if the Cases did
because he understood the loss, since he lost a child. Atty Marco advised
that I should go to the airport in NY to meet the family or meet them after they
came home. I advised I would if the family was ok with it.
11-28-99
Case advised they wanted to pay for the child’s funeral. They advised
that the child died due to a viral infection that he acquired 48 hours prior to
his death. They said they were advised that the were not to take him from
the orphanage, but the doctor said that his fever went down and since they
really wanted to take care of him that the could take the child. Cases
asked for the death and birth cert. So they could use it for income tax
purposes. I advised them that since the adoption was not finalized I did
not know that if they could use him as a deduction. She said she wanted to
try. She was very chipper and wanted to come home.
11-28-99
Advised Cases of flight arrangements and that they were scheduled to fly first
class home as requested.
11-29-99
Dennis advised Cases just left Perm went back to Moscow and never helped with
the funeral arrangements and only wanted a copy of the birth, death cert. He advised me that would take time.
12-4-99
Called the Cases to see how they were. Again Elizabeth was gruff and said
fine for having a dead baby and said why are you calling? I am not going
to sue you? Again, I advised her that I was just calling for her well being and
to see if she was able to find a counselor for her grief and loss. She
said her place of work had those services and she was going to seek them.
I offered to come to NY to visit, and she said that was totally unnecessary.
I advised Ms. Case I did not mind coming to help her through this time.
She
said in a couple of days she would advise if she was going to seek the adoption
of the child from Bulgaria. Ms. Case advised me she was sure the baby had
a bad virus since her husband who gave the baby mouth to mouth became deathly
ill in Moscow. She said that was proof to her that the child was sick with
an infection and explained his greenish color stool. She said her husband
had the same color stool and was vomiting fiercely. I advised her that it
might be true since the pathology report came back to how that the child was ill
48 hours from prior to his death.
12-6-99
Sent email to Case family ref. If they want to pursue adoption of Anguel.
12-8-99
Received letter from Cases ref. Adoption of Anguel, they advised they still want
to adopt him and want to put the Russian Case behind them.
12-8-99
Received Copy of letter written to Russian rep Dennis G. req. copy of any docs
from Russia pertaining to the death of their child. I contact Atty. Kaselak and Atty. Marco and informed them of
the request.
1-2-2000
Spoke with Case ref. If they are OK. She advised doing better, want to put
this behind them and jump into adopting [Anguel]. She thanked me for the
video of [Anguel].
1/2000
Sent video of Anguel to Case family. Advised them he looked good and
director was unsure of location of siblings. Ms. Case advised she was
fine, sought counsel and they were anxious to bring the child home. She
was not [too] pleasant, very verbal, kept asking about the Autopsy, death cert.
And birth cert. So they can get their taxes done. I advised her that
all measures were being taken and I understood her frustration. Mrs. Case
asked about he time frame for adopting Anguel. I advised her again the
time frame was 4-6 months from the time that the documents were all entered into
the Ministry of Health. I advised her of the new law and the new step in
the Bulgarian adoption rules and the time frame can vary. She understood,
but stated she was frustrated. I advised that only the timeline could
start once all the documents were submitted. We advised her we were still
waiting on some of her documents to be completed and sent to us.
1-25-2000
Received more documents for the Case files for the dossier overseas for their
Bulgarian Adoption. Cases were advised the time line would start completely once
all their docs were sent overseas. I sent their docs immediately to D.C.
to get authenticated.
2-1-2000
Assisted the Case family with writing a letter to the Min of Ed. To assist them
with getting an autopsy report of the child.
2-3-2000
Received documents for Bulgarian adoption, and note of ref. money paid? Note
stated $35K and counting? Advised Cases that their remainder of their
Bulgarian Documents would be sent to D.C.
2-7-2000
Ms. Case emailed me to request the status of obtaining [Cyril’s] autopsy
report. Also she stated she called Mr. Kaselak 3 times, all to no avail or
response. I advised her I would contact Atty K. Ms. Case also asked
about the tax letter we sent that showed that the $9500 was to be returned.
We advised her via letter that the refund was coming once she signed the release
per the Attys.
2-8-2000
Mrs. Case emailed ref. The following copy of her email:
[Various
emails that, thanks to Denise including them here, have actually been recovered after having
orginally been lost to the MTX.A
virus. Mostly from myself about speaking with Mr. Kaselak AND the email
exchanges about my asking to go and see Anguel from February 2000. What is
missing from these emails are the email addresses our responses were being
directed to, of note that pesky SO113@aol.com.
To round the report out, Denise had copied and inserted a post I had placed on
FRUA on February 22, 2000 describing the Bulgarian process. I knew she was
trolling the Internet then, and would leave little tidbits for her to nibble on.
She bit].
Daniel was so flustered by reading this, as I have said, that he would not be
satisfied until he sat down, reviewed old correspondence and drafted a detailed
reply, calling Denise to devastating account on her many prevarications,
obfuscations and outright LIES. It took him the
better part of a week, and he sent it out Oct. 12.
Throughout
this experience, Daniel and I have maintained that we were deliberately shut out
of the “BBAS family” while we waited and waited for Anguel. This
caused an incredible amount of pressure on us as you can possibly see if you
read of our experiences.
What
hurts us the most, even now, was the callous way that Denise handled my request
to visit Anguel in Burgas as we and he waited and waited and waited. I
had wanted to make that trip to see for myself how he was doing in the
orphanage. Please reread the snotty email that Denise sent me rebuffing
my offer.
We later learned other BBAS families traveled to Bulgaria to
visit their children during our wait; one client even stayed in Bulgaria for
three months, going back and forth to the orphanage every day. Another
client visited Bulgaria three times to see her children. Why was my request to visit our son denied?
Well, here, my faithful readers is the proof that there was indeed a
deliberate plan to shut us out and ostracize us from the rest of the Building Blocks
clients. In this undated letter, possibly faxed to Richard J. Marco Jr. in
late February, Denise Hubbard shows whose side she was really on, and what a
truly horrible person she really is.
I have no idea why Denise let this one slip
into her ODHS file — perhaps she wanted to demonstrate that she made the
effort to arrange another trip to Bulgaria for me, but at the same time forgot
that we might be able to see it. I really don’t care because it is, after all, public
record.
And now it’s on the World Wide Web for everyone to see.
Here is that letter, in its entirety, without comment.
Rick:
I
have received the following emails from the Case family requesting more
assistance with their Bulgarian Adoption.
Also
they have requested that I allow them to join our private adoption board so
they can communicate with the rest of our adoptive parents.
The
Cases documents for the adoption of the children from Bulgaria [Anguel] is
in the Ministry of Health. I just got back their additional police
clearance and medical reports requested by Bulgaria today and sent them to a
family who is leaving to see their child.
They
are at the second third step of their adoption. They have seen the child, completed the paperwork, signed off
on the child, and their adoption has been approved by the orphanage
director, the local court and now they are waiting for approval from the
Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Court and Passport Control. Then they will travel to adopt him.
The
Cases have indicated that they want to continue the adoption to the
Licensing Specialist, they indicated that they are treating the adoptions as
two different cases with BB.
I
have called the Licensing Specialist in Cleveland, Linda Saridakis at: [#]
and left a message for her to fax me or send me the complaint from the Cases
as well as a copy of the acquisitions.
Elizabeth
Case wants to travel to Bulgaria to see [Anguel].
She would like to go and see him to make sure he really is OK.
She wants to take her husband or father. I
asked Valeri about this and he said only one person could come and that
Elizabeth would have to travel with another family that is adopting from us
that is adopting a child from the orphanage her son is in. He
said he could not see him wasting time, gas, money to take just Elizabeth to
the orphanage. I do not blame him. BUT, I do not want the Cases
to be with any of our families.
Should
I send all communication through you with them? You need email so we can do this!
Please
advise what should I do?
Denise
What Richard J. Marco Jr. should have advised was for Denise to get out of the
adoption business and go back to running an “office inventory service,” her
career prior to that of running a child brokering firm.
He also should have advised Denise to have some compassion for the clients who
had lost a baby only three months before. He should have advised Denise to allow
Elizabeth Case to visit her soon-to-be son in Bulgaria to set her mind at ease.
He should have advised Denise to either pay the clients $25,000 or do the
“Bulgarian child’s adoption” gratis.
But greedy, conniving people don’t think that way. All they can do is
cash your checks and then crap all over you and the children that you want to
welcome into your home.
The above is what Denise Hubbard apparently means by “having her say.”
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