Two Newspaper Articles from The Tennessean

By TRAVIS LOLLER
Staff Writer

Published: Monday, 07/24/06
Mike and Chantel Early traveled from Iowa to Nashville, expecting to adopt a newborn baby from a Nashville woman who had agreed to give up her child.

In the months leading up to the adoption, they spent thousands of dollars in legal fees and in living expenses for the birth mother.

But after arriving in Nashville in early June of 2005, the birth mother stopped answering her phone.

The adoption facilitator who had matched the couple with the mother said the woman had given birth and changed her mind about giving the baby up, the Earlys said.

"Until you've been through it, you don't know what it is when you expect to go to the hospital and hold your baby and then all of a sudden there's nothing," Mike Early said in an interview this month.

Then, three weeks ago, they saw the birth mother, Amy Cumbee of Nashville, on the television news show "Dateline."

Through hidden cameras placed in a Nashville hotel, the Earlys watched as Cumbee told another woman, Lori Coleman of Athens, Tenn., that she wanted them to adopt her soon-to-be-born baby.

The program had been filmed in January, just seven months after Cumbee had supposedly given birth to the baby the Earlys had hoped to adopt.

Amy Cumbee is now being held at the Metro Jail in Nashville on charges of identity theft for using the name of her friend, Christy Tidwell, to post ads on the Internet saying she was a birth mother seeking adoptive parents.

She is scheduled to appear in court today in connection with that case, and the Davidson County District Attorney's Office is following up the claims of the Earlys, the Colemans and two other couples.

Cumbee declined a request to be interviewed for this story.

Coleman found Cumbee on the Internet last November. In the months that followed, Coleman and her husband gave her money and gift cards for her living expenses, Coleman said.

They agreed to meet in Nashville, where Lori Coleman said she gave Cumbee more than $600 for living expenses.

As the "Dateline" secret cameras and microphones rolled, Cumbee called several times that night to chat. During the last call, Cumbee said she was in labor.

But two hours later, Cumbee's phone was disconnected.

"It's not the monetary loss I'm worried about," said Coleman, who said she spent $7,000 on expenses associated with the planned adoption, including living expense payments to Cumbee. "It's just the most emotional abuse you can imagine."

At least four couples have come forward with similar stories about Cumbee, and Coleman said she does not want any more prospective parents to fall victim to the woman.

But prosecuting Cumbee on anything more than identity theft may not be easy. That's because a birth mother cannot legally give up custody of her baby until at least three days after it is born.

Having the birth mother change her mind at the last minute is a risk all adoptive parents run. And if private attorneys and adoption facilitators do not check on the background of the mother, experts say, there's little to stop someone from promising the same baby to numerous couples and then backing out, or even pretending to be pregnant and using the back-out to cover up the fact that she never had a baby.

"The whole realm of private adoptions is very much vulnerable to those kinds of abuses because there isn't any clear monitoring," said Susan Brooks, a professor of law at Vanderbilt University.

Using a state-licensed agency is probably safe, she said. But adoptions are expensive, and finding a birth mother on your own can greatly reduce the costs.

Neither Brooks nor Victor Groza, an adoption expert and professor of social work at Case Western Reserve University, knew of any public or private organization that tracks complaints about adoption scams.

Early said Cumbee should go to jail.

"It's not the money she scammed," he said. "It's just the hurt that she's caused all these families."

"We had been trying fertility treatment for three years before we decided to try adoption," he said. "It wasn't an easy decision to do that."

He also is upset with the adoption facilitator, who he feels failed to properly look into Cumbee's background before matching the couple with her.

Coleman said she would have expected her adoption attorney to figure out that Cumbee was using a false name and address and never dreamed that something like this could happen.

"In the adoption world, it's just like a free-for-all," Coleman said. "People are just going nuts because there are no restrictions."


Published: Monday, 07/24/06


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Woman says she expected adoption but was conned


Lori Coleman, left, and Crystal Tidwell are sworn in by Judge Sue McKnight Evans during a hearing on Monday for Amy Cumbee. RICKY ROGERS / THE TENNESSEAN

By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, 07/25/06
An Athens, Tenn., woman who wanted a baby testified on Monday that she was duped into giving money to a Nashville woman now at the center of an alleged adoption scam.

The testimony came during a preliminary hearing for Amy Cumbee, 27, who faces a charge of identity theft.

Cumbee has not been charged in connection with claims — featured on NBC's television show "Dateline" — that she swindled as many as four couples by telling them they could adopt her soon-to-be-born baby. At least two couples said they paid thousands of dollars for lawyers and Cumbee's living expenses. It's unclear whether Cumbee was ever actually pregnant.

"She's just got to be held accountable for what she's done," said Lori Coleman, the East Tennessee woman who claims she and her husband were conned last winter into thinking they would be able to adopt the baby they believed Cumbee was carrying.

Cumbee, who is held at Metro Jail, declined to be interviewed. She did not appear at the hearing

The two met on an Internet site that links couples with women who want to give up children. Cumbee's identity theft case stems from her alleged use of the name of another woman, Christy Tidwell, to arrange an adoption.

Coleman said she has struggled to gain interest of law enforcement agencies and vowed to crusade for stricter regulation of adoptions. The Davidson County district attorney's office said last week it is looking into claims of the couples. •


Published: Tuesday, 07/25/06