JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office recently arrested a 36-year-old woman who is accused of adoption fraud.
News4JAX spoke with the attorney the woman contracted who wouldn’t share specifics of the case, but shed light on what typically happens in these cases.
Attorney Mark Miller said adoption fraud is rare and can really only happen in two instances, when a woman isn’t pregnant but is accepting money or when a pregnant woman is accepting money from more than one party.
According to a police report, neither of those scenarios happened in this case, but the timeline tells part of the story.
Starting in June 2021, Na’Shamria Harmon contacted Miller. Miller reached out to a prospective parent to see if they would consider adopting Harmon’s unborn 13th child.
In July 2021, the parent and Harmon went into an adoption plan for the child and the due date was around Feb. 1, 2022.
The attorney gave JSO scans of the adoption plan, his communication with Harmon and maternity-related living expenses, but didn’t give an exact number.
Miller wouldn’t comment directly on this case because it is ongoing, but he shared how costly this process can be.
“Some cases, there’s very low maternity-related living expenses and other cases, it can be extraordinarily high 10, 20, $30,000,” Miller said.
Here’s a text thread between the prospective parent and Harmon:
Prospective Parent: “How are you doing?”
Harmon: “I have a doctor’s appointment today – follow-up in two weeks.”
Prospective Parent: “How are you? When is the next doctor’s appointment? Is the baby’s head down yet?”
Harmon: “I have two appointments this week.”
Harmon: “We’re making another appointment for the next week. ‘Getting closer.’”
From the report, the texting continued on Jan. 27, 2022, when Harmon sent a message to Miller.
It’s not clear what was said, but according to the report, the due date should’ve been five days later.
Over a year later, Harmon was arrested Thursday and charged with adoption fraud.
The fraud, in this case, isn’t clear from the report. Harmon was released from jail on Friday.
Harmon called News4JAX and when we called her back but she didn’t want to talk about it now, saying it is a private family matter.
Miller wanted to reiterate adoption fraud in Florida is unusual and the majority of cases are legitimate adoptions.
He said it is important for people to either go through an adoption agency or with a reputable adoption attorney and to look out for red flags, do background checks, pay the bills directly and get to know not just the person you are adopting from but also their family.