Byline: Paul Gustafson; Staff Writer
A St. Paul woman whose husband was charged with murdering their adopted son has drawn criticism from some adoption foes in India for continuing to try to adopt an Indian girl.
Gail Hunt has been trying to adopt a 3-year-old girl from a
children's home in Hyderabad for years, but she hit a snag last week
when international adoption critics learned of the murder charges in St. Paul against her husband, Steven Showcatally.
After several Indian newspapers ran stories in the last week about
the murder case, officials at the St. Theresa's Tender Loving Care
children's home, which co-sponsored Hunt's adoption petition, told the Times of India that the home is withdrawing from the case.
The 3-year-old girl will be sent to a state adoption home to wait for prospective Indian parents, they said.
Gita Ramaswamy, an activist and outspoken critic of international adoptions of Indian children, said Hunt's adoption case has upset many people in her country.
"There is much outrage here that adoption agencies can press to send a second child to a home where a first child has been murdered," she said.
K. Balagopal, an attorney for an activist challenging Hunt's adoption of the girl, said Thursday that Hunt, 47, had not yet withdrawn her case.
Hunt could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Hunt's adoption
case is pending before an Indian appeals court in the state of Andhra
Pradesh because a Family Court judge in Hyderabad ruled against her adoption petition in March 2003.
Showcatally, 34, who was charged with unintentional second-degree
murder, is accused of losing his temper March 16 while caring for his
6-month-old adoptive son, Gustavo Hunt, and deliberately dropping him in
a bathtub.
The father took his son to St. Paul Children's
Hospital, where he died about three hours later. Doctors determined
that the boy suffered multiple skull fractures and multiple hemorrhages
beneath his scalp.
Showcatally initially told police that he
accidentally dropped the boy in the bathtub and then carried him into a
bedroom and did not notice anything unusual, according to a criminal
complaint.
After police challenged his story because of the
severity of his son's injuries, the father said that he accidentally
dropped the boy once then intentionally dropped him two more times and
that he was responsible for the injuries, the complaint states.
The boy was adopted and came to live with Showcatally and Hunt last
November. The couple have lived together since 1997 and got married in
January.
According to Indian court records, Hunt has pursued adoption of the Indian girl for years.
She traveled to India
in March 2002 for a four-month stay during which she saw the girl for
three to four hours a day. She filed a petition to adopt the girl in
December 2002.
In rejecting Hunt's petition last year, a
Family Court judge in Hyderabad ruled that Tender Loving Care home
officials could not prove that the girl's biological parents had signed
a document agreeing to allow adoption.
The judge also ruled that the home's officials had not shown that they properly sought adoptive parents in India as required by Indian law before agreeing to let Hunt adopt the girl.
Attorneys for Hunt argued in court papers that the judge erred, and filed an appeal.
Ramaswamy and other opponents of international adoptions in India charge that adoption
agencies there have been engaging in baby-trafficking: arranging
illegal adoptions for foreign parents willing to pay thousands of
dollars for children.
They have begun intervening in court to stop individual foreign adoption cases like Hunt's.
Indian police in Andhra Pradesh exposed a baby-trafficking ring and
closed two orphanages in 2001. St. Theresa's also was charged with
procuring children for financial gain, but it denied the charges and
remains open while the case is pending.
Paul Gustafson is at pgustafson@startribune.com.
