Tara Lee has her day in court, and her victims show up to face her. But it’s not over. An unforeseen consequence of Tara Lee’s fraud threatens to upend the lives of more than a dozen families. Binge all episodes of Baby Broker, ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Crimes on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access. The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. A Sony Music Entertainment & Perfect Cadence production. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the central conflict in 'Gotcha Day'?
The way an out-of-state adoption works, at least in Michigan, is that the final paperwork goes to the desk of an official in the county where the baby was born. And it can take about three months for it to be approved.
Chapter 2: How did Tara Lee's arrest affect the Granath family?
The final paperwork for Mae Granath, the baby girl Tammy and Nick adopted from Sarah, was just days, maybe hours, from being stamped when Tara Lee was arrested and indicted on 18 counts of wire fraud. And just like that, May's adoption was flagged as possibly illegal. Talia Getting, their lawyer, had to call them and tell them the bad news.
It was almost like telling someone who thought they'd beaten a serious illness that, no, actually, someone had misread the test results.
I was sitting at the second chair of my island, and she said to me, I have to tell you that you and a few other families may not be able to keep your babies. And I went into a straight panic attack. You're not taking my daughter back.
Tammy fell apart.
It was the worst call I've ever had in my entire life.
In a few months, a judge in Michigan would decide if May's adoption was legal, or if Tammy and Nick would have to give her back. The central concern was if Tara Lee had coerced Sarah into giving up her baby. May was almost four months old. Every night as they put her to bed, Tammy and Nick worried that their days with their daughter were numbered.
And I just went through the motions, and I didn't want to bond with her. I was so scared.
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Chapter 3: What happened when Mae's birth mother wanted her back?
Meanwhile, doctors had been monitoring May for a potential problem with her spine. When May turned six months old, the Grannis took her to the hospital for an MRI to determine if she needed surgery. Tammy and Nick watched as Mae, lying on a gurney, dressed in a tiny purple hospital gown, and hooked to an IV, was wheeled down the hallway and into the room.
My phone rings, and it's Maria, Sarah's lawyer, who represents her. And she says, are you sitting down? And without even taking a breath, she says, Sarah wants Mae back.
From Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence, this is Baby Broker. I'm Peter McDonald. Episode 7, Gotcha Day.
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When Tammy heard that Mae's birth mother wanted her back, she broke down in tears in the hospital hallway. Nurses ran to her, thinking she was upset about her infant daughter being sedated, but it was much worse than that. They got off the phone with the lawyer and called Sarah.
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Chapter 4: How did the court proceedings unfold for the Granaths?
Minutes later, May was wheeled out. She was fine. She didn't need surgery. The next day, March 14th, Tammy and Nick had their day in court. the Michigan judge allowed them to appear on Zoom. Talia Getting and Tanya Corrado were there, and of course, the birth mother, Sarah.
We were told not to get our hopes up, and we were also told, do not think that your adoption's gonna go through today.
Tammy and Nick gave me a transcript of the hearing, and I discovered some things I didn't know. The judge asked Sarah how many expenses Tara Lee had covered for her from the $8,000 the Graniths had provided. Under oath, Sarah said less than a quarter. After the birth, she'd asked Tara Lee for counseling sessions and Tara blocked her messages, left her high and dry.
And during Sarah's pregnancy, the Graniths had asked Tara Lee numerous times for a copy of her license to perform adoptions in Michigan, which of course she didn't have. She kept forgetting to give it to them. They hadn't mentioned that to me. Toward the end of the hearing, the judge asked Sarah if she'd been coerced. She said, no.
The only good thing that came out of Tara was Tammy and Nick, meeting them and my daughter having a loving, caring family. The judge said, I'm going to confirm this adoption. Tammy and Nick signed off, hugged their daughter, and wept.
March 14th, 2019, and to this day we celebrate her gotcha day.
Gotcha day. In the Granth household, it's a major holiday. A party with balloons and cake. Tara Lee was a conspicuous no-show for the Granth's adoption hearing. She'd avoided jail by paying a $10,000 bond, But to remain free, she had to follow certain rules. Chief among them, avoid using cell phones, an important restriction for someone charged with wire fraud.
But she broke the rule, and the person who caught her was investigative reporter Heather Catallo.
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to issue an arrest warrant for Tara Lee after seeing one of our recent stories. And now, Lee could be locked up because of our video.
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Chapter 5: What were the legal consequences for Tara Lee?
Sarah Woodward told me that they would have arrested her earlier, but they thought she was pregnant. But Wiggins' pregnancy was a hoax. She was indicted on three counts of wire fraud and Tara Lee on six more, bringing her total to 24 counts. Here's Sarah Woodward.
Probably every case that goes to trial here, most cases, we will have engaged in plea negotiations and we will send over a plea agreement. Because trial is inherently risky, you never know what 12 people are going to do. You never know if you're going to have a holdout, even when you think your evidence is incredibly strong.
What's typical in a white collar crime case with wire fraud?
When we calculate wire fraud sentences under our sentencing guidelines, the most important factor is going to be the loss amount. We had one recently in our district that's some $40 million.
FBI agent Matt Sluss, who has a background in accounting, determined the amount of money Tara Lee made from adoptions from 2016 through 2018 was more than $2 million. Many of those adoptions were fraudulent. But Woodward felt she could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that about half a million came through wire fraud.
Now, she got enhancements on top of that because there were victims that suffered significant financial harm. She also obstructed justice.
And it wasn't the first time Tara Lee had committed a crime. In 2005, she wrote over $22,000 in bad checks, including to two jewelry stores, and was arrested. She also tried to buy a snowmobile with a bad check.
So when I was drafting that plea agreement, I was honestly trying to see how high I could get the guidelines while being stuck with that relatively low loss amount.
Woodward sent the plea agreement to Tara Lee's defense attorney. It required Tara Lee to plead guilty to two charges of wire fraud and acknowledge the evidence against her in the other charges. Tara Lee accepted the deal. The next step would be sentencing. And that's where this white-collar crime prosecution came with a twist.
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Chapter 6: How did the victims confront Tara Lee in court?
I could look straight at her the entire hearing, because she needed to know. You messed with my family, and that's not okay.
After opening statements, Adam stepped out of the jury box and stood in front of Tara Lynn.
I'm standing here because I was one of those adoptive parents that wrote a letter of character for Tara Lee. Kyle and I considered getting a divorce because of all of this. There were nights we'd go to bed not talking to each other. I almost lost my family because of the lies that this woman wedged between me and my husband.
I'm Courtney Edmond, and I have had two fails with Tara Lee. A failed adoption to me was holding a baby to lose them only hours later. To others in the group, failed adoption meant that their baby was deceased at birth. Others were matched with mothers that were never expecting. Others were matched with mothers that never even existed.
Basically drove from Atlanta to Michigan, not knowing whether our adoption was real, whether our birth mom was real.
The manipulation damaged our relationship with our daughter's birth mother for Tara Lee's financial benefit. It made us feel mistrust and used and unsafe.
Tara, you have managed to steal the purity and the gift of what adoption truly means and is.
We trusted you to do the right thing by a woman who was making the hardest decision that would forever change her life. You promised us you were helping them, but you weren't. You lied.
Somebody asked me yesterday what I would say to you if you were in front of me, and the only thing I kept coming back to was, what if it was one of your children? What if it was your daughter that was pregnant or your daughter that couldn't have children who was trying to adopt, and somebody came in, a predator, and preyed on them?
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