Last April, state Rep. Justin Harris denounced the rape of a 6-year-old girl, allegedly at the hands of Eric Cameron Francis. What Harris didn’t say was that the girl was his legally-adopted daughter who he gave away to the man charged with assaulting her.
Danny Johnston / AP
When Eric Cameron Francis was arrested in April 2014 for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl who was in his temporary care, Arkansas State Rep. Justin Harris said he was "devastated and sickened" by the charges. What Harris failed to mention at the time was that the young girl was his legally-adopted daughter.
On March 6, 2013, Harris announced on his Twitter account that he and his wife, Marsha, had officially adopted the 6-year-old girl and her 3-year-old sister through the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The couple also has three biological sons.
But about six months later, around September 2013, the Harris family sent the two girls to live with Francis, his wife Stacey and their three children, as first reported by the Arkansas Times .
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , Harris said he gave the girls to the Francises because their behavior had changed.
"When our adoption became final, we went to the court, the whole family, exchanged teddy bears and everything – and it was like a light bulb suddenly flipped on for the girls," he told the newspaper. "They knew, suddenly knew, that this was their forever home, and that they were no longer ever going back to mom's house. There was anger and an instant behavior change."
Harris said he took the girls took counseling but saw no improvement in their behavior.
Stacey Francis told The Arkansas Times that she and her husband brought the girls into their home with the hope of adopting them.
At the time, Francis was a teacher at a Christian pre-school in West Fork, Arkansas. The school was owned by the Harris family.
But Francis was fired in January 2014 for having a poor work record. Harris' children, though, were still in Francis' care.
On March 28, 2014, the state's Crimes Against Children division got an anonymous call about the sisters that raised the attention of authorities.
Francis was arrested for abuse less than a month later, and was charged formally in November.
There is no law in Arkansas that prohibits parents from leaving a child in the care of someone else.
"We would have never knowingly put a child in harm's way, and anyone who knows us knows that," Harris added.
The Harris couple issued a statement through their lawyer, Jennifer Wells:
Rep. and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home. Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how.
The girls are now in a different home and safe, according to the Arkansas Times. Harris is scheduled to give a press conference Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. CST.
Wells told BuzzFeed News Harris will not be providing any additional comments at the time. Harris will take questions at the press conference.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1KxQKNa
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