Crime & Safety
Hearing Postponed Again for Franklin Park Couple Accused of Abusing Adopted Children
Douglas and Kristen Barbour, through their attorney, have repeatedly denied the charges filed by Allegheny County Police.
The preliminary hearing for a Franklin Park couple accused of physically abusing and starving two children they adopted from Ethiopia in March has been postponed again.
Douglas Barbour, a Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General, is also charged with simple assault, court documents show.
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Barbour has been suspended from his state job without pay, Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement after the couple's arrest Oct. 4.
The couple was to have appeared Tuesday before Leetsdale District Court Judge Robert Ford, but that hearing has been postponed. It is the second time the hearing has been postponed. Patch will report on when a new hearing date is set.
Find out what's happening in North Alleghenyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The couple, who are free on bond, was last in court Oct. 15, when Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning ruled that the Barbours would be permitted supervised visitation with their two biological children, ages 2 and 4, pending approval of the judge who is presiding over the matter in Family Court, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported.
According to the criminal complaint, the Barbours are accused of starving their adopted 6-year-old son and leaving him with lesions from being kept in urine-soaked clothing for long periods of time.
The 18-month-old adopted girl will likely be blinded in one eye and paralyzed after suffering abusive head trauma, the criminal complaint stated.
Dr. Rachel Berger determined at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC that the girl had suffered multiple hemorrhages, fractures and injuries to both eyes and had been a victim of physical abuse, including abusive head trauma, according to the complaint.
The doctor recommended that the girl not be returned to the Barbours' home, and that the boy be permitted no contact with the Barbours, police said in the complaint.
"I have been part of the (hospital) child protection team for almost 14 years and cannot remember the last time I recommended no contact," the doctor wrote in a report cited by police.
The Barbour's attorney, Christopher Capozzi, told the Post-Gazette his clients "vehemently deny these charges.
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