Adoption agency fights on

Regardless of the legal outcome, federal charges against a Utah-based international adoption agency will spell the end of the nonprofit organization, a local defense attorney said Monday.

"I suspect, as this case goes to trial, Focus On Children may cease to exist as an entity," said Rebecca Hyde, who represents Karen Banks, owner of Focus on Children, along with her husband, Scott. "It's been shut down by this prosecution, given all the media attention."

All pending adoptions have been transferred to another agency for completion, Hyde said.

The couple, along with five of their employees, face a 135-count federal indictment that alleges the agency systematically misled birth parents in Samoa into signing away rights to their children while telling adoptive parents in the United States that the children had been abandoned and were orphans.

Trial is expected to take at least six weeks, though a date has not yet been scheduled. Prosecutors and defense attorneys say they still have a lot of work to do.