LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The adoptive parents of a confessed killer contend Los Angeles County and several adoption department workers engaged in "despicable conduct" by concealing the fact that their son's birth mother was diagnosed as a chronic schizophrenic.
In a $1 million lawsuit, John and Winifred Strohmeyer say they never would have gone through with the adoption had they known about the birth mother's history of mental illness. Their lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleges "despicable conduct," fraud and breach of contract in the 1980 adoption.Their son, Jeremy Strohmeyer, now 21, pleaded guilty in September 1998 to murder, kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault in the strangling of a 7-year-old girl in a Nevada casino. He was given four consecutive life sentences.
The Strohmeyers contend the county's handling of the case was "an intentional misrepresentation, deceit or concealment" that deprived the parents of the child they sought to adopt.
"Essentially their aim is to get compensation for the actions of the Los Angeles County adoption agency that had fraudulently withheld information about Jeremy's birth mother and the conditions that she had been suffering from for quite a few years," said attorney Gregory W. Smith.
Had the Strohmeyers been told of his background, the suit says they "would not have adopted Jeremy and would not have incurred the monetary and emotional burdens, which included the eventual cost of a legal defense of Jeremy."