When Eric Cameron Francis was arrested in April 2014 for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl who was in his temporary care, Arkansas State Rep. Justin Harris said he was "devastated and sickened" by the charges. What Harris failed to mention at the time was that the young girl was his legally-adopted daughter.
On March 6, 2013, Harris announced on his Twitter account that he and his wife, Marsha, had officially adopted the 6-year-old girl and her 3-year-old sister through the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The couple also has three biological sons.
But about six months later, around September 2013, the Harris family sent the two girls to live with Francis, his wife Stacey and their three children, as first reported by the Arkansas Times.
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Harris said he gave the girls to the Francises because their behavior had changed.
"When our adoption became final, we went to the court, the whole family, exchanged teddy bears and everything – and it was like a light bulb suddenly flipped on for the girls," he told the newspaper. "They knew, suddenly knew, that this was their forever home, and that they were no longer ever going back to mom's house. There was anger and an instant behavior change."
Harris said he took the girls to counseling but saw no improvement in their behavior.
Stacey Francis told The Arkansas Times that she and her husband brought the girls into their home with the hope of adopting them.
At the time, Francis was a teacher at a Christian pre-school in West Fork, Arkansas. The school was owned by the Harris family.
But Francis was fired in January 2014 for having a poor work record. Harris' children, though, were still in Francis' care.
On March 28, 2014, the state's Crimes Against Children division got an anonymous call about the sisters that raised the attention of authorities.
Francis was arrested for abuse less than a month later, and was charged formally in November.
There is no law in Arkansas that prohibits parents from leaving a child in the care of someone else.
"We would have never knowingly put a child in harm's way, and anyone who knows us knows that," Harris added.
The Harris couple issued a statement through their lawyer, Jennifer Wells:
Rep. and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home. Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how.
The girls are now in a different home and safe, according to the Arkansas Times.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Harris said the couple adopted three girls and attempted to return two to state care after one "crushed a family pet to death" and exhibited other behavioral problems, but the state Department of Human Services threatened him and his wife with abandonment charges.
"Despite what you may have read, we have reached out to DHS numerous times, and we were met with nothing but hostility," Harris said according to KFSM-TV. "We were failed by DHS. When DHS fails adoptive parents, they fail the children even more."
The two girls were later diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, Harris said, and a psychiatrist and pediatrician advised the girls be moved out of the home for the well-being of the other children. The third and oldest adopted child was put in a treatment facility after she allegedly threatened to kill other girls in the family, he added.
"We never had any indication that Eric Francis was anything other than a child-care professional who would be an asset to our day care," Harris said.
The Department of Human Services responded in a statement, KFSM-TV reported, saying it was "prohibited from clarifying inaccurate information" on the case.
"This is a sad and unfortunate situation," the department stated. "For us, what is important is the safety and well-being of children. So we are working with the governor and the Legislature to ensure there is more oversight in place to limit families' abilities to 're-home' children who come from state custody. The legislation also will prevent families from giving a subsidy to anyone else without DHS and court oversight."