Attorney calls Jonesville couple 'loving parents'

Two apparently malnourished children taken into emergency protective custody one week ago are small for their age because they suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and neglect in an Estonian orphanage, their parents said Friday.

Union County sheriff's deputies arrested John and Connie Oliver of Jonesville Monday after the adopted children, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, were found playing unsupervised on a church playground near their home. The children said they had not been fed that day and that their mother abused them.

Neighbors told officers they believed the children were being neglected, and Connie Oliver, 53, was charged with felony unlawful neglect. John Oliver, 48, was charged with misdemeanor cruelty to children.

The Olivers responded to the allegations for the first time Friday and stressed that the children, who they say suffer developmental delays and detachment syndrome, have never been neglected in their eight years with the family and receive at least three meals a day. The Olivers said the children also exhibit behavioral problems and have been under the care of multiple physicians, including a doctor who examined the children the day before they were taken into custody.

The Olivers' attorney, Doug Brannon of Spartanburg, called his clients "loving parents" who have been wrongly accused.

"It's hurt very much," John Oliver said. "We love these two kids, and we want them back."

"It hurts because we're just good, honest people," Connie Oliver said.

John Oliver was at home while the children were playing on the playground, Brannon said. The couple's biological daughter, age 17, showed no signs of neglect.

Lt. Robert Hines with the Union County Sheriff's Office has said the adopted children, whose names have not been released, had bones showing in their arms, legs and faces. The girl weighed 40 pounds when found, and the boy weighed 45 pounds.

Adoption in 1998

Connie Oliver, whose mother is Estonian, and John Oliver decided to adopt after learning in 1995 about an Estonian ferry disaster that orphaned 40 children. They waited several years before they were able to bring home the boy and girl, who were living in an Estonian orphanage but not victims of the ferry incident.

The girl was born with a cleft palette, which the Olivers paid to have it treated after she arrived in the United States, Brannon said. The boy and girl have been under the regular care of Greenville physician Dr. Lynn Hornsby since 2001, he said. Reading from a letter attributed to Hornsby, who saw the children Sept. 22, Brannon said both children suffer health problems related to alcohol and drug abuse by their birth mother.

Brannon quoted Hornsby's letter as reading, "I do not believe these children have been neglected or malnourished in any way since I have known them."

"They're not doing anything wrong," Brannon said of the Olivers. "They were taking their children to the medical doctors, the endocrinologist, counselors. Any and all recommendations have been followed."

Efforts to reach Hornsby for comment Friday evening proved unsuccessful.

"Emotional problems"

The Olivers and Brannon say they don't know why the children told officers they had been abused. The children said they had been locked inside their rooms before, and Brannon acknowledged that one room had a doorknob installed backwards so that it could be locked from the outside. The parents also send the children to their rooms as punishment, Brannon said.

The morning of the day the children were taken into custody, Connie Oliver had scolded them for arguing and roughhousing inside and told them to play outside, Brannon said.

"It's possible the children were mad at mom and dad for scolding them," he said.

Brannon said he believes the children did not understand the severity of the allegations they made to police, or the implications of the allegations.

"I can't tell you why these children have said these things," he said. "… I can tell you they have significant emotional problems from their treatment in that orphanage in Estonia."

The S.C. Department of Social Services, which has placed the children in foster care, responded to a complaint at the residence two years ago and found the complaint to be unfounded. Neither Hines nor Union County Sheriff Howard Wells could be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Rachel E. Leonard can be reached at 562-7230, or

rachel.leonard@shj,com.