(WXYZ) — It was a nationwide adoption fraud scheme first exposed by the 7 Investigators.
When he sentenced a Macomb County mom, a federal judge called Tara Lynn Lee “evil” and said he wished he could give her life in prison.
Related report: "She's a monster." Couple says Tara Lee deserves no leniency in adoption scheme
But next week, Lee is scheduled to be moved from a federal prison in Alabama back home to a halfway house near Detroit. Lee will still be in federal custody, but she’ll have far fewer restrictions on her freedom, and that has the families who say they were traumatized by Lee crying foul.
“It’s pretty deep trauma. Things that I have needed professional help with,” said Cortney Edmond.
“I don't hate people, but I hate her. She hurt my family,” said Teresa Matheny.
Matheny and Edmond say their lives were forever changed by Lee. The 43-year-old Macomb County mother pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges as part of a nationwide adoption fraud scheme back in 2020.
“The pain isn't something that just goes away,” Edmond told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.
Edmond says she gave Lee more than $23,000 for two different failed adoptions, only to learn that Lee never intended to let her family keep those babies.
“There was grief and loss in holding and meeting two babies that we thought were ours. You grieve that because you think that they're your kids, but then you find out that they're not. It's grieving something you never actually had, but you did have,” said Edmond.
Federal prosecutors say Lee left a trail of financial and emotional devastation across 24 states, taking in $2.1 million from 160 couples hoping to adopt.
As part of her guilty plea, Lee admitted that she made up fake birth mothers, told adoptive couples that babies had died when they never existed, and double matched couples with the same birth moms.
“The things that she did to our family — trying to adopt our son out to other families after we already had temporary custody of him; the way that she treated our son's birth parents, like they were absolute trash,” said Matheny.
When Judge Bernard Friedman sentenced Lee to 10 years in federal prison, he called her evil and said it was the worst case he’d ever seen in his lengthy career on the bench.
Now just five years later, federal prosecutors have told Lee’s victims that she’s already getting transferred from her federal detention center in Alabama to a halfway house near Detroit. Those facilities are also called Residential Reentry Centers.
Even though Lee will still technically be in federal custody, Matheny, Edmond and dozens of other families say they are outraged. They say they thought Lee would stay behind bars for much longer.
Related story: Meet the mothers who helped bring down Tara Lee for adoption scheme
“I feel very frustrated and truly just let down,” said Matheny.
Also, a few months ago, Lee filed a motion for compassionate release. Lee told the judge that “due to lack of proper medical care, her health has greatly deteriorated.” Lee asked for compassionate release due to things like elevated blood sugar levels and an ankle injury.
“That is not a terminal illness. That is not something that affects her ability to self-care. And that really is the how the Sentencing Commission defines it is, can you care for yourself in prison,” said Mark Chutkow is the former Chief of the Criminal Division of the US Attorney’s Office in Detroit.
Chutkow used to review prisoner requests for compassionate release and says Lee’s alleged medical conditions likely won’t qualify.
“I think in addition to the fact that I would say these are not compelling reasons, they're certainly not extraordinary reasons. I would also look at the character of the defendant themselves. And here Tara Lee is quite notorious,” said Chutkow. “So that would put my, at least if I was the judge, my radar antenna up as to can I trust her description of her own medical condition if she was lying about the medical condition of these pregnant mothers.”
“Prison is not supposed to be easy. It's not. I'm sorry,” said Matheny.
Matheny says she finds it insulting to hear Lee asking for compassion with her health issues when she says Lee did not take care of the birth mothers when they needed medical care, even though adoptive parents paid Lee thousands of dollars to do that.
“She sure didn't care about anyone else when she was doing her crimes. And I think it's just a way for her to manipulate the system,” said Matheny.
Federal prosecutors are asking the judge to deny Lee’s motion, saying she permanently altered the lives of the families she victimized and does not deserve to be released early.
“She gave many of these families a life sentence. So, she deserves the same,” said Matheny.
The 7 Investigators did reach out to Tara Lee’s former attorney who said that Tara broke her ankle a few years ago. She said that because it was never properly treated, Lee’s ankle can’t be repaired.
On Tuesday, Lee will be eligible to move to the halfway house until her sentence ends in October of 2026.
This weekend, a new podcast will be released by Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence Productions that focuses on the Tara Lee case. The podcast is called Baby Broker.
Here is some more information from the Bureau of Prisons about Residential Reentry Centers:
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) contracts residential reentry center (RRC) services, also known as halfway houses, to provide assistance to individuals who are nearing release. RRCs provide a safe, structured, supervised environment, as well as employment counseling, job placement, financial management assistance, and other programs and services. RRCs help inmates gradually rebuild their ties to the community and facilitate supervising offenders' activities during this readjustment phase. All RRC residents are accounted for throughout the day. Residents are granted passes to leave for work, education, visit with family and for personal matters when appropriate.
Regarding the Detroit RRC, electronic monitoring is used for all individuals. Individual evaluations are completed on each resident to determine whether passes within the community are appropriate and whether any restrictions are needed while housed at the RRC. In all cases, resident activity is accounted for by staff at the facility.