Adoptive mother: 'I never dumped my children'
Says children may be lying
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- The adoptive mother of seven children found malnourished at a Nigerian orphanage said Thursday the youngsters could be lying about claims of physical and emotional abuse because they were upset about their ordeal.
"If somebody put me in an orphanage and starved me and subjected me to no sleep -- sleep deprivation and food deprivation are two forms of torture -- I wouldn't want to see that person either," Mercury Denise Liggins, 47, said at a hearing where she was ordered to pay monthly child support. "And I would say anything to keep from going back."
Liggins' children, ranging in age from 8 to 17, were discovered a month ago at the Nigerian orphanage by an American missionary. The children, some of them suffering from typhoid and malaria, told the missionary they were from Houston and wanted to go home. The church's pastor told two U.S. congressmen and arrangements were made to return them to Texas.
Since their return, the children have alleged years of severe emotional and physical abuse, according to Child Protective Services.
Liggins said her only mistake was trusting her brother-in-law to care for the children in Nigeria while she took a job with Halliburton subsidiary KBR to work in Iraq. The relative took the money, causing the children to be kicked out of their boarding school and put in the squalid orphanage, she said.
"I never dumped my children," Liggins said. "My children were left with someone who I thought was responsible. I am praying that I get them back."
Liggins' attorney, Michael Delaney, charged that it "wasn't accidental" the children ended up in an orphanage.
"We have some evidence that the oldest girl, who is 17 and had always been sort of a rebel and sort of the leader of the other children, actually plotted ... to take them to this orphanage in an effort to leave Nigeria," he alleged.
The children's attorney, Terry Lea Elizondo, denied that account, saying the children were surprised when Nigerian officials showed up at their uncle's home and took them to the orphanage. The oldest child is "not a rebel at all," Elizondo said.
"She is a person, who at age 16, had to become responsible for the care of six younger siblings," she said, accusing Liggins of trying to shift blame and evade responsibility "for the mess she's created."
Judge Sherry Van Pelt ordered Liggins to pay $1,480 a month while the children remain in state custody.
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