What A Tangled Web We Weave…

I’m sitting here with the after Christmas blahs, dreading the return back to the workaday world and life as normal. I was saddened that for Carri and Camden, Christmas just wasn’t what it should have been with her son Camden’s future still in limbo because of Adoption by Gentle Care and their decision to continue to pursue this matter for the sake of their adolescent ego. As I sat here, a small bit of information happened to cross my path that really triggered memories of the scheming and double-dealing that happened in the ‘Baby Veronica‘ case a few years ago. Who would have thought the drama and deception in these adoption cases could be more intriguing and even more dramatic than an episode of ‘Real Housewives’? 

Adoption by Gentle Care has tried their hardest to keep their dealings private to this point. You know the whole saying about things done in the dark coming to light? I guess this is their year. Their dealings could only stay in the dark so long. I guess too, if you aren’t very wise and can’t leave well enough alone, you are asking for it to come to light too. You see, allegedly, after having lost the Grayson Vaughn case and all the publicity that came along with that, rumor has it, Adoption by Gentle Care got a quick infusion of funds or a helping hand from American Adoptions bailing them out. At least that’s how the story goes. I had no idea of the truthfulness of this info but it was a little tidbit buried in the back of my mind, stored there for if ever I needed it. 

Recently Senate Bill 250 came before the Ohio Legislature. The primary proponent for this bill was Pat Hamilton. This bill sought to reduce the time a father has to register with the putative father registry, reduced the time within which an adoption could be contested, dealt with ‘living expenses’ paid to birth mothers, allowed adoption agencies a hand in the money and increased tax benefits for adoptive families. It seems in anything adoption related there in the Columbus area, Pat Hamilton is involved. I wondered how someone could live with themself having done so much damage to families…and all in the name of strengthening families. You see, much of what he does is bundled as securing families and futures for adoptive children and strengthening the foundation the families are built upon. Yet, with all he does, much the opposite is happening. 

This bill sought to make sure a biological father had little to no time to ‘claim’ his child in the case of deception regarding the birth. Or making sure that once dad found out, there was little he could do to stop the adoption. It also put more money in the hands of adoption agencies as they could now get their hand in the pot by dictating how, when, how much and to whom any moneys for birth mother would be paid. They’d be the intermediary in this money between adoptive couples and birth mothers. (As if Adoption by Gentle Care was even giving any of it to birth mom in the first place. We’ve heard from birth mothers and their medical bills weren’t ever paid anyway. So where’d that money go? Often these agencies encourage birth mothers to apply for Medicaid while collecting money for their medical expenses from adoptive couples and never passing it on to birth mothers.)

Anything ‘adoption’ in the Columbus area or Ohio in general always seems to involve Mr. Hamilton. I realized though, this isn’t about strengthening families. I was asking the wrong question. To ask how he can live with himself implies he has a heart and I was thinking with MY human heart. I completely forgot the truly evil don’t think the same way. He can’t possibly care or even have a heart. I forgot adoption is often presented as a feel good story, a heartfelt moment much the same as adopting a puppy for Christmas while in reality it’s an INDUSTRY…..A MULTI BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY.  It becomes a lot easier to live with one’s self while rolling in the money acquired from it. After all, with the money fore-front on one’s mind, it becomes a little easier to forget about all the families you destroyed to get there. 

Seeing that Adoption by Gentle Care seems to relish in their dirty deeds being spotlighted, with the question of Pat Hamilton and his conscious in my mind, I did a little digging. I was curious as to why these folks at Adoption by Gentle Care and Mr Hamilton would be so willing to throw themselves to the wolves over one child (or a second child if you count Grayson Vaughn).

Pat Hamilton is Andrew Patrick Hamilton, ESQ, a Columbus area attorney. He is currently an attorney representing Adoption by Gentle Care in the case of Camden Stearns. 

And here’s Adoption by Gentle Care….

AGC sits at 370 S 5th Street. You see that little dot below them? The one that says Adoption Circle? That’s 400 S 5th Street. That’s the building Mr. Hamilton is out of. 

And here’s a picture of that property there at 400 S. 5th Street. Some pretty nice digs right? 

THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is the Hamilton Adoption Empire right here. Well at least that first floor, or suite 103. 

You see, what I thought was some rumor of the bailing out of Adoption by Gentle Care by American Adoptions could very well be and most likely is truth.  Based on their 2007 returns, American Adoptions co-founders Ted and Susan Mars were on the board of Adoption by Gentle Care also.

And after checking, it seems in any and all aspects of adoption in the area, if there is money involved, Mr. Hamilton seems to get a slice of that pie. 

Here’s his slice of the American Adoptions pie. 

And his slice of the Adoption Circle pie. 

And in what seems to be common among all these companies, if they don’t first succeed, try, try again. Or, oh hell, if they get sued or their names get drug through the mud, just close shop, reopen, recycle and use another name next week. 

I can’t imagine family reunions for some of these adoptive families. “Well, let’s see…we got little Susie from AGC but her brother came from AC or was it AAAC? Or were they Gentle Care Adoption Services then?”

Oh but wait, not only is he the man to go to for adoption, but he’s got you covered like some late night Sham Wow salesman. He can hook you up even pre conception! His surrogacy slice of the pie….

So far you have Pat Hamilton with a hand in Adoptions by Gentle Care and in Adoption Circle, who by the way went to great lengths to distance themselves from this case last year. I wondered why that was! 

And we have founders of one on the board for the other while they all pretend they don’t even know one another. And Pat Hamilton has his hands in all of them while he pushes for legislation that helps to net them even more. One way to make yourself richer is to legislate all your competition out of business, that’s for sure! Kudos on that little plot Pat! Push biological families off the cliff, leaving the poor little children needing homes and you and your cohorts can play the hero. 

The law firm of Tucker Ellis is another key player in all this. A law firm out of Cleveland representing many of the Fortune 500, with so much to lose, I wonder why they’d involve themselves in this mess if not for the BILLIONS! It always seems to come full circle back to that word. BILLIONS. I wondered when families and children and all that heart warming rhetoric jumped off the train but then I remember, it was BILLIONS, the crazed engineer driving the train.

The firm of Tucker Ellis represents Gentle Care in this mess as well. And partner, Matthew Moriarty there is also President on the Board of Directors of……you guessed it! Adoptions by Gentle Care. And in what I’m loving right now, also had a speaking engagement by a name very similar to the title of this blog coincidentally, speaking on (irony) ethics. Tucker Ellis’ attorney Jon Oebker also represents Adoption by Gentle Care alongside Pat Hamilton. 

And you see, somewhere there’s some little piece of paper or whatever it is, Articles of Incorporation and all that pesky business paperwork. They all have that legaleeze in them. Like with most companies, they have a little something in there, the gist of which is they cannot hire anyone or do any company business for personal gain and bunch of other things about the mixing of business and so forth. They aren’t supposed to do business with the other businesses in which their members have a personal interest. But I guess they just ignored that whole section when it came to all this. Mr Moriarty I’m sure sees no problem with sitting on AGC’s board and being a partner for Tucker Ellis while Tucker Ellis attornies represent them or with putting Attorney Oebkers on the case as well. 

And we’re back to BILLIONS! What other explanation is there for a Fortune 500 law firm getting in bed with an adoption agency? Businesses normally remain neutral on social and political topics just so they don’t push away any potential or existing clientele but again, BILLIONS is the only explanation for why they’d jump into the game.  So Tucker Ellis comes out pro adoption in their race for the billions too. 

And do you remember that 2007 return you were shown earlier in this post? Remember some of the names from it like the Mars family? That’s because they seem to be the driving force behind American Adoptions and huge players in the adoption industry. In fact, as early as these returns, you can see old Matt Moriarty was on the board there rubbing elbows with the Mars family. From what I can see, American Adoptions is active in Kansas, Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, Louisiana, and Lord knows where else because my computer almost crashed trying to track them all. And all of them non-profit yet raking in the BILLIONS! All for the little children to have a home.  All hoping for a home for those poor kids in time for Christmas. All while Camden sat waiting in a foster home in Ohio while he HAS a home, a home Adoption by Gentle Care, Patt Hamilton, Matt Moriarty and the rest of the board there and their cohorts won’t let Camden go to. That one child didn’t need to be with his mother for the holiday. That one child is worth at least $30,000 to them and if they let that $30,000 go, that might mean a little less in their coffers. 

I wonder what old Ted would think of what Adoption by Gentle Care is doing in this case concerning Camden?