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Show Sunday, August 2007 1 DAILY HERALD A7 1 Police: Adopted children were Election 2008: Candidates struJe to clarify, apologize for misspeaking Us Sidotl THE ASSOCIATED Brian Skoloff WASHINGTON-S- ay what? The 2008 presidential campaign theme could be Oops! What I meant was . Just about every Republican and Democrat has flubbed an answer to a question or made a borderline inappropriate comment some so uncom-fortabie they make you cringe only to take back the remarks or seek to clarify them later when under fire. This month alone, Republi- can Mitt Romney backtracked from a comment about his sons' lack of military service. Rival Rudy Giuliani retreated from his suggestion that he spent as much time as Sept. II rescue workers at the ground zero site and was exposed to the same health risks. Demo-Crat Bill Richardson stumbled over a question about whether homosexuality was a choice. , AQ sought to skirt controversy by quickly explaining themselves. ... It is happening so often, you'd think it's deliberate! quipped G Terry Madonna, .. a pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.' Joking aside, he said: I dont think you can go through this grueling ordeal and not find even the most seasoned politician who isnt susceptible to misspeaking or a malaprop here or there. Were seeing some genuinely real moments as these candidates are in the pressure cooker. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. Adoption is (opposed to be a but for Stephen Wells it was a house of horrors. Since his adoption roughly 15 years ago, Wells says, he has been attacked with a sti and a can of evaporated milk. He says he was handcuffed and tied up and forced to sleep on a cold tile floor in a locked hallway, where he soiled himself because he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom. Scars mark his wrists from I - . . 1 I 'V 4 v MATTHEW was denied education, medical care and food, and basically spent his entire life indoors. His home was his prison. Wellss account surfaced , , in recently released court documents and interviews that provide a fuller picture of Ju- dith Leekin, the woman at the center of what authorities call a lucrative adoption scheme i that stretched from New York ' Citys hardscrabble Jamaica, Queens, neighborhood to sun- - " ny South Florida. Leekin, 62, and originally from Trinidad, used intimida-tio- n and violence to control her 11 adopted children for years while earning a staggering $126 million in adoptive subsi-die- s, police said. She has been charged with multiple counts of abuse and could face up to 190 years in . prison.. Leekin lias pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations. Her lawyer, Mario Garda, says she loved and nurtured the children, providing ..' them with medical and dental care, and taking them to parks and out to eat. Much about Leekin remains a mystery. She.bad two Florida drivers licenses under dif- - V ferent last names, along with two Social Security numbers. She had at least seven known aliases. Investigators have been slowly trying to piece together her life, dating back to her time in Queens, when, accord-- ' ing to records, her adoption hatched and was plan probably perfected.' Authorities believe she used ' four aliases to adopt the 11 children in New York Gty from 1988 to 1996. 9k adopted children, the only special-need- s ones who brought the highest subsidies up to $55 a day, according to the New York Cfcy Administration for Children's .Services. She never went to the same adoption agency twice, and she never used the same name. It wasn't until 1999 that New York began requiring fingerprints from prospective parents. . It didn't take long for a pat-- . tern of cruelty to emerge in New York. They were treated horribly. She treated them mean. It was a shame, David Spence, an okl RAT AJCZAK Scripp - Treasure CoM Newspapan Judith Leekin, 62, approaches the judge at the county courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla, for a hearing on pre-tri- it charged with abusing II Thursday morning. Leekin adapted children and using them to One her pockets with $1.26 million in stipends she received to help care for them, . . : . , . she could hear Leekin screamQueens neighbor, told a local newspaper. ing at the children, "cursing at' Wells refers to his adopthem, the whacks of her tottive mother as evil1' He said ' ting them and the cries of the he was forced to sleep on the children. basement floor in Queens. To evade interlopers, Leekin Once, Leekin left the house all constructed an elaborate surveillance system, which aL day and Wells, now 20. uri- lowed her to keep watch on a nated on himself, he recently told investigators. An enraged closed-circu- it monitor, police Leekin took a can of evaporat- -' said. Whenever an unexpected ed milk and cut his right hand, visitor approached, she would hustle the children into a pas- - . he said. Wells, who still calls Leekin sageway that could bo locked' with dead-boh- s from the "mommy, and some of the others are severely developaccording to aidhorities. ment ally disabled, a testament Tracey Wells told police "of to their years of isolation, po-- being forced to hide in secret lice say. rooms when someone would His sister.Tracey Wells, said come to the house. Leekin once punished her by Leekin also created fake report cards to document the burning her hand on a stove. children's progress in school, After the last adoption, in 1998, Leekin ipoved to Florida allowing her to keep ACS at with the kids. Not much later, bay, according to court papers. The abuse went on for a rookie child welfare worker ... came dose to catching Leekin years until, police say, she after a tip that she was abusing abandoned Tracey Wells at a store in St. Peters-- ; thechildren. " .. burg, 200 miles from home. Leekin simply denied any That led to a search of Leekin's abuse allegations, hid the children and fled. The Florida house and the eventual discov- Department of Children and ery of the other kids. Nine are now in Florida state care. Families and New York ACS workers never saw any of the : A 10th youngster, a 19y ear-olwas discovered living children or their records and homeless elsewhere in the closed the case... In Florida, Leekin lived in a state. He remains on his own. He said Leekin abandoned him lavishly furnished home. : in 2004. Judith Leekin never Some continue to be fearful worked, Claudette Jackson, of Leekin, like Shawn Wells, Leekins former lover, told who turns 28 on Sunday. A popolice. Apparently she had : never even used her oven or lice report said an officer had to repeatedly reassure him dishwasher, police noted afthat she could never hurt him ter searching one of her two homes in Florida. again. Police are searching for an Her children, now ranging in age from 15 to 27, suffered - 11th foster child, an l&y ear-olin silence and fear. boy named Shane Graham, whom the children said died in . .According to accounts 1999 or 2000. given to police, she would , Other than his name and threaten to shoot the children . ' date of birth and a or cut off their heads if they nickname, ever revealed her secrets, and .. we know very little about once told the children she had him, Port St. Lucie Police Deserved five years in prison for tective Stuart Klearman said. At this point, not much is shooting a woman in the head. Jackson, who did not return clear, but the children are curious. repeated telephone messages "They're asking questions seeking additional comment,' Who are we? Klearman told police that Leekin was .. said. manipulative. Jackson said , . : out-sid- e, . . .. . . ; video-sharin- . and Adam Goldman -- sensitive to the Internet era g and painfully aware of Web sites such as YouTube that allow images and audio tQ be posted online immediately. At the same time, it has become routine for campaigns to send out Trackers with recorders to capture a rival's every appearance in hopes of catching an election-alterin- g misstep to use in a television ador Web video. In the olden days, this wasn't an issue because if you said something that could be problematic, you just denied that you said it, said Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant. IlKse days, Ms too easy to have cold, hard proof. You've got to have a strat--, egy to combat the YouTube video, she added. Now, one mistake can be replayed often. Typically, Republican and Democratic strategists say, candidates who slip up take one of two damagecontrol avenues. Some opt to stand firmly behind their comments and plow forward with their campaigns. PRESS . Chalk . ... - l gies and clarifications to changing times. Candidates of all stripes', have become extremely . ; or clarifying is a sign of weakness and that sticking to their viewpoints shows strength and projects The risk is that they can appear stubborn and unwilling to admit mistakes. More often. Candidates decide to acknowledge their errors or explain their comments quickly. The hope is to take blunders off the table and Hunt the impact of any attacks. But they also could appear as. though they do riot mean what they Say and will change posi- -. tions when they fed the heat.' Regardless of which pat! they choose, strategists say) each situation must be handled individually and candidates must strike a balance between being authentic and being willing to admit they are wrong. Id rather be who I am uxl make mistakes than come across as this very carefully scripted, totally handled person. I think people are so sick of that, said former Ar- kansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican whose words sometimes have gotten him in trouble. "People will forgive me for a mistake more than theyll forgive me for phoniness. And, if they don't, then Im not their guy. Huckabee once referred to Arkansas aa a "banana repub-- . Ik" and, on another occasion, ' jokingly attributed his 110- pound weight loss to spending " time in a concentration camp. Among the recent gaffes: I Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, defended his five sons' decisions not to enlist in the military and said one of the ways my tons are ; showing support for our n is helping me get elected. Later, the Republican said he misspoke, explaining: I didn't mean in any way to compare. service in the country with my boys in any way. I Giuliani, the New York . City mayor during the terrorist attacks, claimed he was at ground zero as often, if not .more, than most of the work-- : era and was exposed to the same health risks. After drawing the ire of some firefighters, he acknowledged: I could have said it better and What I was saying was: Tm there withyou. . . . . . . na-tio- . : . ; HON REBATE GOING ON NOW! . New j . m L1 d, . S50tKit COOLPlX Bm & IftM h. JmB coot.Ptx.r5(XZ)Kir tL $IMV HHHtwY a sail OninnsEt Om, ' terauwng girt iUhIf I . ' Opm , W(W V Wags fUMtobM i r Irt ccxB)LPtXrS2omcit . In gnD YIHtoespiinfwweiawtpwiVeti, O t aat n Oarfwn mwn piiwNi MV , smuslaurtkan : - IrigHf 3 OpsfcHW tjtostov aa MaUastasbAN r its mm h rfK'iwr m PKtum pMioi rus wrW4Hiwinni tm , t Wr knw pwtvsif toim jgm . : s30995 39995 . 97495 I . 22495 : M.cooiraiit COOUWIMW Stm. 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