A Judge in Fairview, Oklahoma on Thursday postponed indefinitely hearings to remove four alleged abused Liberian girls from the home of their adoptive family who are accused of abusing and raping them. 

The Secretary General of the Conference of Liberian Organizations in the Southwestern United States – COLOSUS, Mr. Willie Kamara who traveled to Fairview on Thursday for the hearings, told WRAR-96/Running Africa, that one of the reasons they were told is that the Liberian-born Lawyer, Melvin Johnson who resides in Atlanta, Georgia is not licensed to practice in the State of Oklahoma.

Mr. Johnson has been traveling to Fairview for the past two months since he was hired to represent the girls and was also in court on Thursday. 

The four girls, all of whom are minors and a fifth who now resides with a relative of the adoptive parents in Illinois were adopted in 2005 from a now closed Liberian orphanage, the West African Children Support Network.  

The members of this group are said to now be under investigation in Liberia for arranging shady adoptions. 

According to the NewsOK website quoting court papers, criminal charges have been filed against the adoptive family of the girls in a Major County Court in Oklahoma.

Members of the Liberian Community delegation of Dallas, Texas

Ashton Malachi, 20 charged with rape by instrumentation

Andee Verlon Tyler, 51, and his wife, Penny Tyler, 46, face felony child abuse charges. Their son, Ashton Malachi Tyler, 20, is charged with rape by instrumentation and their daughter, Nathania Dellare Tyler, 21, is charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. 

The website reports that one of the girls when she was 11 was tied to chairs and bedposts and denied meals and was made to sleep outside in the cold as punishment for stealing a cookie from the kitchen. She was sexually molested by an older adoptive brother.  

Kamara said, they have been told that the Judge also wants the criminal case against the Tylers to be disposed of before they can handle the civil case. Preliminary hearings for the criminal case which was originally scheduled for September 11, 2009, will now take place on November 13, 2009. 

Secretary General Kamara led a delegation six from Dallas, Texas on Thursday which included the President of the Liberian Cmmunity Association of DFW, Lorina Diggs-Travell, joined by a delegation of six from Oklahoma City, headed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of COLOSUS, Rev. Tabe William Brownell and inluded the President of LCA-Oklahoma, Fayiah Sicarr and Vice President David Hatmon for what was to be a hearing in Fairview, Oklahoma, to remove the four girls from the Tylers home. 

A local grassroot organization, known as Weep No More which is made up of several witnesses in the case is credited with bringing the girls’ story to the forefront according to the NewsOK. 

Its members have rallied local authorities, constructed a Web site for the girls and requested help from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, State and U.S. Attorneys General and the Internal Revenue Service.

Weep No More has been holding prayers vigils, protests and demonstrations.  

Rev. Brownell who was designated to follow up on the case when it was first brought to the attention of COLOSUS, by ULAA President Anthony Kessely, told Running Africa in Dallas on Saturday that he has visited Fairview and the group Weep No More was at his Church in Oklahoma City for for prayer service and meeting with Liberians for the girls. 

He said Attorney Johnson was representing the girls in the deprived juvinile case free of charge. He said, Mr. Johnson who says he came to the United States at the age of fifteen wonders what would have happened if he had been treated in similar manner when he came here, to the US. 

At COLOSUS’ quarterly meeting in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, October 3, 2009, Rev. Brownell announced that several Liberians including the President of the Liberian Community Association-DFW, Mrs. Lorina Diggs-Travell have agreed to take the children if the Judge agrees to remove them from the Tylers. 

NewsOK reports that Angela Molette, president of the Garfield County NAACP, compiled a 28-page report of her findings on the Tyler children in which she alledged the children are a part of an international child trafficking scam where Americans buy children to turn into slaves.  

Molette alleges the Tylers paid $30,000 to $40,000 for the children, and got financial help from their church for the adoption.  

According to media reports, the issue of the children was first brought to light Janice Winchert who had helped home school the girls in 2006 when she immediately sensed tension in the Tyler house.  

Mrs. Winchert is quoted as saying Mrs. Penny Tyler spoke harshly to the girls and admonished them for the smallest mistakes. She said the girls were quiet and kept their heads bowed as if trying to avoid a confrontation with their adoptive mother.  

She said when the girls came to her house without a member of the Tyler family, their personalities changed when they visited Winchert’s home without members of the Tyler family. Winchert said they played and laughed, and opened up about their home life with the Tylers. The girls talked about being hit with rakes and hoes, and being made to fast for several days as punishment.

Mrs. Winchert said that in spring 2008, the Tylers began limiting contact between her and the girls. She was told she was no longer needed to help with their schooling and visits to her home were prohibited. When she tried to visit them, she was stopped at the Tylers’ front door, she said.  

The NewOK also quotes Winchert as saying the Tylers also withdrew their membership from the church where Winchert and others had come to know the sisters.  

In January 2008, Winchert, her husband and her pastor confronted the Tylers about the girls’ stories of abuse.  

"They never denied it,” Winchert said. "They just kept repeating, ‘you don’t understand what we’re dealing with here.’” 

Click http://www.weepnomore.org/courtrecords.html to read court papers posted on Weep No More website. 

Mr. Kamara says a huge crow of Liberians and Americans from as far as Illinois had gathered at the Courthouse in Fairview on Thursday in a strong show of solidarity. He said, they left from there disappointment.

contributions to this story from the NewsOK website and www.weepnomore.org

Writes,
Patrick K. Manjoe
Dallas, Texas USA
pkmanjoe@runningafrica.com

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