Mother sentenced to probation after guilty plea in adoption scam
Published: May 30, 2009, 12:30 am
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A Buffalo mother of four was spared jail time Friday for her involvement in an adoption scam involving her daughter.
Ar-Kim Godfrey, 34, of Minnesota Avenue, was placed on probation for three years by Senior Erie County Judge Michael
L. D’Amico on her guilty plea to a misdemeanor criminal contempt charge in the adoption case, which also involved Erie County child protective services worker Anthony Noble.
Godfrey and Noble, 44, of Amherst, pleaded guilty two months ago to misdemeanor charges in the adoption scam. He is free on bail pending trial next month on felony perjury charges for court testimony he gave four years ago in the criminal case of another local woman.
D’Amico ordered Godfrey to perform 100 hours of community service and submit to substance abuse testing. She regained custody of her daughter after Erie County Surrogate Barbara Howe invalidated the adoption due to a violent domestic incident involving Noble and his former wife.
Prosecutors said Noble and his former wife had a legitimate adoption under way and actually took custody of Godfrey’s daughter hours after the child was born on Jan. 19, 2005.
Howe ordered Noble to return the infant to her mother, but Noble kept custody of the child and sparked the grand jury investigation that led to the indictment of him and Godfrey two years ago.
Godfrey declined to comment after the sentencing.
In addition to misdemeanor criminal contempt for ignoring the surrogate judge’s court order, Noble also pleaded guilty to falsifying various government records, including his false claim of being the infant’s biological father, prosecutors said.
His adoption-case sentencing has been indefinitely adjourned pending the felony perjury trial next month.
Fifteen years ago, another of Godfrey’s children was killed in infancy. According to court records, Anthony Bailey, her lover, was convicted in November 1995 of second-degree manslaughter for smothering the crying infant boy.
mgryta@buffnews.com
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