A Carey couple whose son was convicted of having sex with a seventh grader in their care have relinquished their license for foster children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Tom Shanahan, an IDHW spokesman in Boise, said Craig and Betty Adamson surrendered their license voluntarily, thereby avoiding the department's having to make a determination.
"We would have had to look at that, and if they were negligent in their supervision, then we may have had to go that way," Shanahan said.
The Adamson's son, 21-year-old Brian Jake Adamson, was convicted by an all-male jury last August of sexual abuse of a minor child under 16, a crime punishable in Idaho by up to 25 years in prison. He was tried on a charge of lewd conduct with a minor child, punishable by up to life, for having sex in October 2007 with the 13-year-old foster child in his parent's home.
Adamson was sentenced last week in 5th District Court. Judge Barry Wood gave him a chance at rehabilitation and sentenced him to six months with the Idaho Department of Correction, which will like send him to the North Idaho Correctional Institution in Cottonwood. If rehabilitation fails, Adamson could spend up to 10 years in prison, the alternative sentence imposed by Wood.
Adamson is now listed as a registered sex offender in Twin Falls County, where he lived and attended College of Southern Idaho.
Craig and Betty Adamsons' license for foster children was suspended after their son's arrest last April.
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Betty Adamson told the Idaho Mountain Express last May that the couple were foster parents for four years and had 14 children in their care during that time. She said the situation with the 13-year-old girl, a seventh grader at Carey School, was the first time they'd ever had a problem involving a foster child.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Correction
A story in the Feb. 4 issue incorrectly stated why Craig and Betty Adamson of Carey no longer have a license for foster care in Idaho. The Adamsons declined last summer to apply for a renewal of their license with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Brian Jake Adamson
