Fla. woman in scam gets more prison time

A Florida woman accused of abusing 11 disabled children she adopted – while pocketing more than $1 million in subsidies – has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Robert Belanger called Judith Leekin’s actions “reprehensible” and handed down the maximum punishment allowed in the plea agreement. Leekin, 63, pleaded no contest to four counts of aggravated child abuse and four counts of aggravated abuse of disabled adults. The adoptees are now in their mid-teens and 20s.

“I’m very sorry,” Leekin said several times during a brief statement to the court.
Leekin’s public defender, Diamond Litty, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the sentence was “fair and appropriate.”

Leekin was arrested in July 2007 after police were called to a supermarket where authorities said she’d abandoned an 18-year-old girl.

Authorities say they found the adopted children had been held like prisoners in Leekin’s home, often handcuffed together and forced to soil themselves because they were not allowed to use the bathroom.

They said they had never seen a doctor or a dentist and had not been allowed to attend school or leave the house.

All were near starvation when they were found.