INTERLACHEN, Fla. – An Interlachen woman, who was accused in an elaborate adoption fraud scheme, pleaded no contest in court and received a light sentence for illegally placing a child for adoption, defrauding the government and perjury.
Tina Scee, 57, was facing up to 15 years in prison. After pleading no contest, adjudication was withheld and she only got sentenced to 60 days in the county jail, along with five years of probation.
Nearly six years ago, Scee was fostering a 2-year-old boy named Dylan while going through the process of adopting him. State investigators said that while fostering the child, Scee posed as a Department of Children and Families worker and illegally placed the boy for adoption with an unsuspecting couple in Ohio. The boy was allowed to stay with the couple out of state, but they periodically brought the boy back to Florida to unknowingly help her deceive DCF during scheduled visits to Scee’s Interlachen home.
This made it appear that she took care of the child full-time while receiving SNAP benefits and daycare assistance for the child, which totaled $4,000, investigators determined.
In Oct. 2017, Scee had the couple bring the boy back to Florida for her final adoption hearing, and at the hearing, Scee was granted the adoption. Immediately following the hearing, the boy returned to Ohio with the couple while Scee continued to illegally receive financial benefits. But when the couple could not obtain the legal documents necessary to complete their adoption of the boy, they contacted Florida Community Partnership for Children for legal guidance, and then that organization contacted DCF.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says the couple was eventually able to adopt Dylan the legal way.
Only one of her neighbors along Cherokee Drive was willing to comment on what many would consider a slap-on-the-wrist punishment. And that neighbor asked to remain anonymous.
“I think the system sucks. I mean, it’s for the criminals,” the neighbor said.
During the time Scee was fostering the boy, records show, she was also an owner of a daycare center. Even more shocking is a 67-page transcript of court testimony witnesses.
One of the witnesses told the court Scee tried to get access to her banking information while attempting to place three other children for adoption. The transcript says the woman felt something wasn’t right, so she went directly to children’s services in Palatka where she was able to legally start the process of adopting the children.
No additional charges were filed against Scee following that testimony.
In addition to the sentence, Scee will also have to pay back the money she fraudulently received.
Records show that Scee had never before been in legal trouble, so she scored very well on what’s called a criminal code score sheet. Her score was based on the lack of prior criminal convictions and the fact that she pleaded no contest to the charges.