Local Law Firms Home > Child Custody & Support News > Woman to Pay Child Support for Rejecting Adopted Child Back in 2009, the World Association for Children and Parents helped Torry Hansen complete the process for adopting a Russian child. The following year in April 2010, 7-year old Artyom Saveliev was back on a plane to Moscow all by himself. His new mother Hansen had sent him back alone on a one-way flight from Washington to Moscow with a rejection note that said the child was unbalanced and violent and she didn't want him. Hansen did not report any of this to social workers and never said she was having trouble taking care of him. The adoption contract Hansen signed says she agrees to take care of the child even if as yet unknown and undisclosed physical or emotional problems pop up. But Artyom is now living in an orphanage near Moscow. After outrage in Russia over how the boy was treated and a temporary ban on adoptions by US citizens, the World Association for Children and Parents filed a lawsuit against Torry Hansen. The court ruled that Hansen must now take responsibility and ordered child support payments of $1000 per month until the boy turns 18. He is now nine years old. The court also awarded $150,000 against Hansen. This includes $58,000 for support and medical costs already spent on the boy in the last two years, along with $29,000 for the adoption agency and $63,000 in legal fees for the plaintiff's attorney. Hansen has now changed her residence to Redding, California and did not attend the court hearings in Bedford County, Tennessee. She has however filed a counter-suit against the adoption agency in the California Superior Court in Shasta County. Hansen's suit alleges that the Russian Federation Supreme Court had authorized annulment of the adoption, and as such the adoption agency has no right to ask for child support. Did you know?
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