Colorado Adoptive Mother Who Misplaced Her Children Goes To Prison

This case, from Colorado, is interesting because Kansas, next door to Colorado has a very similar case. In 2000, Linda and Edward Bryant adopted two boys, Edward and Austin, who have not been seen by anyone since late 2003 or early 2004, yet, until last year, they collected various incomes from the state for each child. No one knows where Edward and Austin are, and Edward and Linda are not telling, but Colorado threw the book at both of them for fraud and theft. Edward's court date is in April of this year, but Linda was sentenced last week to fortytwo years in prison. "In her plea agreement, Bryant pleaded guilty to 4 counts of Felony Theft, 2 counts of Conspiracy to Commit Theft, and 48 counts of Attempting to Influence a Public Servant."....KRDO. To the right is Austin's age progressed photo.

In Kansas, we have a couple of lovebirds named Doug and Valerie Herrman, who did the same thing with their adopted son. In 1993, they adopted Adam, and some time during the fall of 1999, they "lost" him. They told the rest of their family one untrue story, Adam's biological family another untrue story, and never once bothered to inform the state, when they got Adam's stipend checks, that Adam was no longer living with them. They also never filed a missing persons report with the police. They also never cooperated with law enforcement in any of the efforts to find Adam, which took place in 2009, when Adam's biological sister finally discovered he was missing and reported it. To the right is Edwin Bryant's age progressed picture.

Doug and Valerie Herrman initially entered a plea of "not guilty" to charges of theft and fraud. They changed it to "guilty" when it looked as though they might lose, in a trial involving a jury of their peers. They also thought they would avoid going to prison if they admitted that they are disgusting thieves. Their lawyer had it all worked out, too. But then they learned the hard way, a day or two before court, that judges are under no obligation to accept a guilty plea. He sent Valerie to prison for seven months, and Doug to prison for nine months. He was quite outraged about Adam. But here's the thing: how can two states that are so close together have such different penalties for the same crime? Shouldn't Doug and Valerie Herrman stay in prison for fortytwo years, too?

Adam Herrman, and an age progressed picture.