Rep. Harris Keeps Meeting With Press Short (UPDATED)

by Talk Business & Politics staff ([email protected]) 180 views 

Editor’s note: Video from this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics appears at the bottom of this post. KATV’s Janelle Lilley and Elicia Dover reported on the latest developments in the matter.

It was a busy Friday in the capital city as one lawmaker answered critics over allegations of him “rehoming” adopted children.

In an afternoon press conference, Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork, read a statement to reporters on the rehoming issue – a story that involves Harris’ family adopting two girls and passing them to another family where one of the children was later raped. An Arkansas Times story conveyed the story earlier this week. Harris declined to provide his version of events to the Times reporter despite repeated opportunities and since the story broke, he had dodged capitol reporters for nearly three days.

An investigation by the Arkansas State Police last year showed “two children had been adopted by Marsha and Justin Harris through the Department of Human Services and placed the girls into the care of Eric Francis and his wife, Stacy Francis, in Oct. 2013,” content partner KATV reported this week.

Eric Francis was arrested and later convicted of sexually assaulting one of the children. Eric Francis is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence in the case. The Harris’ were never arrested or charged with any crimes tied to the events.

On Thursday night, the attorney for the Harris’, Jennifer Wells, released a statement on behalf of her clients.

The statement reads in full, “Rep. Harris 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.”

On Friday, Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Vincent Insalaco released a statement on the situation.

“As a parent and grandparent, like many Arkansans, I am shocked to learn of Rep. Justin Harris’s egregious action of placing two girls he adopted through DHS directly into harm’s way by sending them to stay with another family without approval from the adoption agency. This action directly lead to the rape of the six-year-old girl who Rep. Harris is responsible for and even received government funding to care for through the foster care system,” Insalaco said. “There are also other issues that need to be raised here. First, the children. The idea that someone could use the foster care system to treat their adopted children like basketballs, tossing them from family to family is horrible. Then, you have an elected leader who represents an antigovernment agenda; yet, he makes his living off of government funding. This is hypocrisy at its highest level.”

Insalaco also called for Harris’ resignation.

“This is a continuation of an alarming pattern that continues with several Arkansas legislators. We believe that if Arkansas families were aware of this; they would be as appalled as well. While his resignation certainly would not change these atrocities, Justin Harris has proven that he is not fit to hold the responsibility of writing our laws, and we hope that Gov. Hutchinson and Speaker Gillam will agree that Harris’s resignation is necessary,” Insalaco said.

In his press conference Friday, Harris said, “We were failed by DHS.” Harris declined to identify who he dealt with in the DHS system, but said he was told he could be charged with child abandonment if he did not keep the adopted kids.

He said one of the adopted children killed a pet and that his family felt threatened. Harris said a psychiatrist and pediatrician recommended the transfer to the Francis family.

The Harris press conference was short on additional answers to questions. Harris answered a handful of questions before his lawyer ushered his wife and him out of the Old Supreme Courtroom at the state capitol.

DHS director John Selig said he never had a conversation with Harris about his case despite Harris’ reference to him in the press conference.

Agency spokesperson Amy Webb told Ch. 7 News that the allegations made by Harris in his press conference would be out of line with agency policy.

“If a family is struggling and they have exhausted all resources, they can come to us and we will take those children back into our custody and there will be no repercussions, no abandonment charges, no criminal charges against that family. That is our policy. That’s what we tell folks,” said Webb.

As far as the first allegation that DHS did not disclose the child’s emotional problems, Webb once again could not about the specific case, however, she did point KATV to a document given to all adoptive families which lists the medical and psychological history of the child.

Where the story goes from here will likely lead to drama at the statehouse next week.

There will be calls for Harris to resign, in part due to the controversy and in part due to his seat on a House committee that deals with children and youth issues.

Also, if lawmakers pass legislation to make “rehoming” a felony crime because of the circumstances of the Harris case, it could certainly lead to tension in the legislative body that in theory would be casting votes to condemn the actions of a fellow legislator.