NORTH TEXAS — The founder of a North Texas adoption agency has been arrested on charges he paid pregnant Tarrant County Jail inmates to put their unborn babies up for adoption.
The director of Adoptions International Inc. posted $50,000 bail after being booked into a central Texas jail last week.
Jody Hall is an attorney and founder of an adoption agency billed as a licensed nonprofit organization.
In May, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said it began investigating what it called unethical adoption practices involving Hall.
Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office
“During the course of this investigation, information was discovered that Jody Hall was paying money to several pregnant Tarrant County inmates in order to place their unborn children for adoption through Hall’s agency,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Two months later, sheriff’s detectives issued warrants for Hall’s arrest at his home in Kyle, Texas.
In 2019, the U.S. State Department revoked Adoptions International’s accreditation, which bars the agency from engaging in adoptions outside the United States, for failing to meet standards.
The crime of selling or buying a child is a felony in Texas.
It is not yet known whether the inmates at the Tarrant County Jail actually received money or put their babies up for adoption.
CBS News Texas was unable to reach Hall for comment.
JD Miles
