Sherin Matthew tragedy - Indian Government suspends the US adoption agency
It is a very sad story! Sherin Mathew was adopted from India by Sini and Wesley Mathews, Sherin dies of homicidal violence and their biological daughter is in CPS custody.
The Government of India has suspended the US adoption agency from adopting for the time being. I hope they will clear them up. It was not their mistake that the couple abused the child. They have helped place nearly 1500 Indian children.
The Muslim community went thru a similar situation some 20 years ago when Bush was the governor of the state. The Albanians man had his daughter sit in his lap and instead of understanding the culture; their child was taken away and placed in a non-Muslim family. Bush did not listen then.
I urge the Indians and Desi people to develop systems to adopt such children within the community. There is a need for a program to orient the immigrant families to about life in the United States and raising their children.
Mike Ghouse
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Courtesy – Dallas Morning News, January 11, 2018
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Courtesy – Dallas Morning News, January 11, 2018
The Indian government has suspended the U.S. adoption agency involved in placing Sherin Mathews with a Richardson family, three months after the 3-year-old was found dead.
Sherin Mathews, who was adopted from India in 2016, died from homicidal violence in October, according to the Dallas County medical examiner's office. Her adoptive parents both face criminal charges in the case. Maneka Gandhi, India's Women and Child Development minister, made the decision to suspend Holt International from operating in India, according to The Hindu.
The nonprofit adoption agency could not immediately be reached for comment, but the organization's website says applications for adoptions from India are no longer being accepted. According to the agency's website, it has placed more than 1,480 Indian children in adoptive homes since 1979.
---- ---Sherin Mathew’s parents barred from contact with their surviving 3-year-old daughter.
A Dallas judge has blocked Sherin Mathews' parents from having contact with their surviving child after prosecutors argued that they failed to protect Sherin, whose body was found in a culvert in October.
The judge's ruling means that due to the allegations against Wesley and Sini Mathews, Child Protective Services doesn't have to work with the Richardson couple to reunite them with their biological 3-year-old daughter. When the agency removes children from their homes, it typically offers the parents services such as parenting classes and counseling to help them regain custody of their kids.
Sherin, the Mathewses' 3-year-old adopted daughter, was found dead more than two weeks after her parents reported her missing Oct. 7. Autopsy results are pending.
"They have each failed to protect the children in their home," Dallas County prosecutor Denise Hale said at a custody hearing Tuesday. "The father has told many lies."
Both parents face criminal charges in Sherin's case. Wesley Mathews was arrested on a charge of injury to a child after he told police that Sherin choked while he forced her to drink milk. His original version of events was that the girl went missing after he sent her to an alley behind the home at 3 a.m. to punish her for not eating.
Sini Mathews, a registered nurse, was arrested on a charge of child abandonment or endangerment based on her husband's admission to police that he and his wife took Sherin's sister out to dinner and left Sherin home alone the night before the girl died.
David Kleckner, an attorney for Wesley Mathews, argued in court that the Mathewses are not bad parents and that the focus should stay on their treatment of Sherin's sister.
"If anything, they took her to dinner that night," he told the court. "They didn't leave her home."
In the meantime, CPS has custody of Sherin's sister, who has been temporarily placed with relatives.
After two days of testimony, state District Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon ruled Tuesday that the Mathewses subjected their biological daughter to "aggravated circumstances" that should keep them from being able to see her.
A CPS investigator testified that when she came to the home to remove Sherin's sister, Sini Mathews was not emotional.
"She was eerily calm," Kelly Mitchell testified. "I really took note of it because typically a mother would be very upset about her child being removed."
While Mitchell was there, she said, Wesley Mathews arrived home after posting bond following his initial arrest for child endangerment. Sini Mathews "did not appear upset with him in any way," Mitchell said.
She said she noticed many photos of Sherin's sister in the home, but none of Sherin. Mitchell also testified that Sherin was never mentioned while CPS workers were there. She said she felt it indicated that the couple had different relationships with their two daughters.
Wesley Mathews' attorneys said the couple loved their daughters "very much the same," even if they didn't display photos of Sherin in their home.
"This child was very disfigured," attorney Rafael De La Garza said at a news conference after the ruling. "You're not going to post an unflattering picture of the child for everybody to see. You'll learn about all that stuff later."
The girl had a problem with one of her eyes, and her parents had been concerned about her weight and her ability to walk, according to court testimony.
Richardson police Detective Jules Farmer testified that Wesley Mathews told police he first found out about Sherin's medical conditions when he went to India last year to pick her up. Farmer said that the father described the girl as "challenging" and that he was concerned she wasn't eating enough.
The father told police he was trying to feed Sherin a bottle of milk in the garage the night before she died, according to court testimony. Farmer said the father indicated he grew frustrated with Sherin as he tried to get her to eat.
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