Florida woman who posed as government worker to illegally offer two-year-old foster son for adoption arrested
A woman from Florida has been arrested and charged in an alleged adoption scheme involving her 2-year-old foster son, according to reports. The woman, identified as 54-year-old Tina Scee, fostered a two-year-old disabled boy, adopted him, and then offered him for adoption, posing as an employee of the Department of Children and Families (DCF).
Scee, of Interlachen, reportedly presented herself as a DCF worker attempting to find adoptive homes for children. Shortly after her charade began, a couple from Ohio visited Scee in Florida to meet the boy and was told that the child was up for adoption, according to WJXT-TV. The woman also let the boy go along with the Ohio couple after meeting them, however, she allegedly told them that they would have to come back to Florida several times before the adoption procedure was complete.
Scee, in September and October 2017, allegedly asked the couple to bring the child back to Florida multiple times in an attempt to deceive DCF workers during site visits. She made it appear like she was looking after the boy full-time. The 54-year-old, during this time, reportedly received federal benefits for the child, amounting to nearly $4,000.
She eventually told the couple to fly the child back to Florida, in October 2017, for her final adoption hearing, where she was granted the adoption. Scee then sent the boy with the couple to Ohio, however, the couple could not obtain the legal documents needed to complete their adoption procedures. The duo contacted Florida Community Partnership for Children (CPC) for legal assistance and the organization then contacted DCF.
The DCF then contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement regarding the fraud, and the agency began probing Scee in 2018.
Scee was later apprehended and charged with an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, illegally placing a child for adoption and perjury, according to the outlet. According to court records, the 44-year-old was booked on Friday and was released six hours later on a $20,000 bond.
A judge reportedly gave the full custody of the boy to the Ohio couple in February this year.