It was a day of celebration. The adoption paperwork was finally complete with the judge’s signature.
Their lawyer said, “Congratulations.”
The 8-year-old boy was ecstatic: At last he had the same last name as his mother, step-father and baby sister.
It didn’t last.
Now the family must start over again, following three years of lies from their former attorney, who forged the judge’s signature.
William Dean Adams, 53, of Monroe pleaded guilty last month to three counts of felony forgery for faking final documents for two step-parent adoptions and for a divorce.
Adams also resigned from his post as the Monroe School Board vice president this week. And his license to practice law has been suspended.
Calls to Adams’ home Wednesday were not returned.
The families affected by the fraud are just now starting to pick up the pieces.
“We are just astonished to tears about it,” said the mother of the 8-year-old boy. She asked that family members’ names not be used because the tricky adoption process is not finished.
The family hired Adams in 2003, she said.
For the next two years, the family was given varying reasons why the process was taking so long. Adams delivered the signed papers in August.
The family ended up paying only $125 for the initial filing fees; he never asked for more payments, she said.
With the new attorney, the family has already spent thousands of dollars and signed reams of required paperwork they never saw before.
By all accounts, Adams was well-respected in both Island County, where he worked for the city of Oak Harbor as a public defender, and in Monroe.
So far, Adams still has not offered a reason for forging the documents and signatures – the earliest dated October 2003, according to court records.
The investigation started in March when Oak Harbor police learned that Adams never filed an adoption decree on behalf of a man who wanted to adopt his wife’s daughter.
And the mother of the 8-year-old boy said she began to suspect something was wrong with their documents when she ran into problems with related paperwork for wills, child support payments and taxes.
Detectives also discovered that Adams in October 2003 forged judges’ signatures in a divorce, court records show.
Adams on April 17 pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court. He could face two to five months in jail on each count, and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
His law license has been suspended by the state Supreme Court pending further investigation, said Judy Berrett, spokeswoman for the Washington State Bar Association. Generally attorneys who are convicted of felonies have their licenses suspended or are disbarred, Berrett said.
Adams has been a lawyer for nearly 29 years. He has served on the Monroe School Board for eight years, where he has been an active and sought-after voice.
At the board’s regularly scheduled meeting Monday, he was uncharacteristically quiet.
School leaders learned of his legal problems Tuesday.
“It was quite a shock. I feel a great loss by this,” Superintendent Bill Prenevost said. “We have a lot of empathy for his family and just want to recognize and honor that he’s been a great advocate on the school board for kids, particularly for kids of poverty, and public education in general.”
Adams did not offer school leaders a reason for his actions, Prenevost said.
“We’re so much more than the sum of our mistakes,” said Monroe School Board president Tom MacIntyre. “Some of the things you do in your life, when you’re asked why, you almost have to make up a reason – because there isn’t one. It doesn’t make sense.”
Reporter Diana Hefley contributed to this report.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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