Police: Mo. day care operator tried to arrange adoption of client’s baby without their knowledge
A Missouri day care operator was charged Thursday in federal court with secretly taking a client’s baby to Arkansas for visits with a couple with whom she was trying to arrange an illegal adoption of the infant.
Lasonya Poindexter, 30, was arrested Wednesday and charged in U.S. District Court in Springfield with attempted kidnapping of the 5-month-old daughter of Joplin, Missouri, couple Ashley and Christian Still. Poindexter remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing set for Tuesday.
An affidavit filed with the charge states that Poindexter began providing day care for the couple’s two children in April. At the time, she was operating out of her home with the assistance of a sister.
According to the affidavit, Poindexter first contacted a couple in Lincoln, Arkansas, through a friend in June and began making arrangements for them to adopt the infant girl who was being left in her care a few days a week, even though the baby’s parents never put her up for adoption and never told Poindexter that she was available for adoption.
Poindexter made at least four trips to Arkansas to allow the couple to bond with the baby during visits lasting two to three hours. The trips were made without the Stills’ knowledge or permission, according to the affidavit. The defendant told the couple in Arkansas that the baby was the product of a rape and that her mother had left her with Poindexter because she wanted Poindexter to find the child a good home. She also told them that the mother preferred a “closed” adoption and did not wish to meet them, according to the affidavit.
The couple in Arkansas were taken in initially and even went so far as to prepare a nursery for the baby in their home. But they eventually became suspicious that the adoption arrangements might not be legally valid despite Poindexter’s assurances, according to the affidavit.
Contributing to their dawning suspicions was a change in Poindexter’s story as to who was going to foot the bill for the adoption. Initially, she said the baby’s grandmother would pay for it.
Later, she told the couple that her own boyfriend, whom she claimed was a doctor, would be covering the cost. The couple also were troubled by Poindexter declining their offers to drive to Joplin for pre-adoption visits with the baby.
In July, the prospective adoptive mother viewed the Facebook page of one of Poindexter’s children and noticed that the child was Facebook friends with Ashley Stills. She then came across numerous photos of Ashley with the baby on the mother’s Facebook page.
Contacting Ashley through Facebook Messenger, she identified herself and her husband as the couple planning to adopt the baby. Ashley informed her that the baby was not up for adoption.
The Arkansas woman confronted Poindexter with the revelation and Poindexter forwarded her a screen shot of an email purportedly from an adoption attorney in Joplin and suggesting that all was in order with the proposed adoption and that just a couple of remaining steps needed to be taken.
But, on July 20, after having been contacted by the prospective adoptive mother in Arkansas, the Stills went to Joplin police. An investigation ensued involving the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services and the FBI, and culminating in Poindexter’s arrest this week.
The affidavit reveals that Poindexter initially tried to shift responsibility for the adoption scheme onto her 16-year-old sister, who she suggested may have used her Facebook accounts to set up the deal with the couple in Arkansas.
But the Arkansas couple told investigators that their communications had been with Poindexter and that she was the one who brought the girl for visits. Investigators also spoke with the attorney whose name was used in the purported email and he told them that he had never represented Poindexter and was not involved in any adoption proceeding involving the Stills’ baby.
The affidavit does not cite any possible motive for Poindexter’s alleged actions.
Admissions
A probable-cause affidavit indicates that after her arrest this week Lasonya Poindexter acknowledged having taken a Joplin couple’s baby across state lines in an attempt to arrange an adoption without the parents’ knowledge or consent. She also admitted that once her scheme began to fall apart and both the Joplin parents and the prospective adoptive couple confronted her about her deceit, she briefly considered offering the couple in Arkansas another girl whose parents were paying Poindexter for day care.