Adoption Agency Founder Allegedly Paid $1,096 for Pregnant Inmates’ Unborn Children

In 2019, the Texas adoption agency’s license was temporarily suspended by federal authorities

The founder of a Texas adoption agency has been charged with two felony counts of selling or buying a child, according to her online inmate records.

Jody Hall, 68, was reserved in the Hays County Jail on Thursday, July 23, and released on $50,000 bail the same day.

Hall, which according to she LinkedIn is the founder, attorney and executive director of Adoptions International Inc., was allegedly communicating with pregnant inmates at the Tarrant County Jail through his tablet communication system in an attempt to purchase their unborn children, according to affidavits prison sentence obtained by PEOPLE.

Hall allegedly paid a woman $846 for her unborn child, according to the affidavit, saying at one point that she would stop the payments if the woman’s boyfriend did not give up his rights to the child. “I don’t need birth mothers who lie to me just to get financial support,” she added, according to the affidavit.

She allegedly paid another woman $250, allegedly writing into the communications system that she would pay that woman another $2,500 “when you get out, or if you want me to put some in your books every week, I can do that,” she claims. the declaration. .

“I have helped many girls like you,” Hall allegedly wrote to the woman on Tuesday, May 7, passing along what she called “an open adoption” and promising, “we can help you even when you are not in prison. ” She allegedly continued, according to the affidavit, “You can pick a family and start communicating with them now. We’ll put $100 a week toward your books and you can spend some of it on the tablet or whatever you want to buy. baby’s father ?

In a later conversation, she allegedly referenced the woman’s incarceration, noting that Child Protective Services “will be called” regarding the baby, “and I can have them close the case if I know you told the social worker and nurses that has an adoption plan.”

When the woman who received $846 decided she wanted to keep her child, Hall allegedly called her — according to messages transcribed in the affidavit — a “drug addict” and a “scammer,” threatening, “I’m going to tell the prosecutor in your case all about how this [adoptive] your family has supported you since November and you deceived them WITH THE HELP OF YOUR BOYFRIEND. He has pictures of him all over Facebook holding the baby. You are such a liar!!!”

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The Texas Penal Code allows adoption agencies cover some pregnancy-related expenses of biological mothers. However, because the Tarrant County Jail “incurs all necessary expenses related to the pregnancy and support of its inmates,” these payments were “unauthorized,” making Hall’s payments illegal, police alleged in the affidavits.

Adoptions International Inc.’s accreditation was previously suspended in June 2019 “pending further review,” according to a to perceive by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs.

It was unclear how long the suspension lasted — or what led to its occurrence — but the agency said that for the duration of the suspension the adoption agency “must cease providing all adoption services related to international adoption cases” and was “Please transfer your cases to another adoption service provider.”

It was not immediately clear whether Hall had secured an attorney to represent her in the case or whether she had contested the charges.

In Texas, a conviction on a third-degree felony charge of selling or buying a child carries a sentence between two and 10 years behind bars.

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Read the original article at People.