‘Entitled’ homeless mom of 15 jailed on contempt charges

The woman who captured the ire of right wing blogs last week for comments made to press about who should be responsible for providing for her 15 children has been jailed on contempt charges after refusing to answer a judge’s questions about a possible current pregnancy.

The original story painted a picture of welfare entitlement, but one passage in particular seemed to enrage many readers. The woman, Angel Adams, complained that the father of ten of her children was incarcerated for crimes related to dealing cocaine. Adams said:

“What do I do?” she said earlier in the day. “I have no answers. My family has been railroaded. Someone needs to pay.

“Nobody’s helping me.”

Keeping the family afloat became a concern for Adams when her partner was incarcerated, and she indicated no willingness to support her massive brood:

The 37-year-old mother doesn’t work. “This is my work,” she said, gesturing toward the bunch. “I do this all by myself. I don’t know what I’m going to do. This is a revolving door going nowhere.”

Tampa Bay Online sums up the feelings many local people have about the woman’s situation:

Here is a woman who continues to have children when she can’t afford a roof over her head. She loses a subsidized apartment because she fails to pay the nominal rent. She moves into a two-bedroom apartment from which she is eventually evicted. She winds up with a week’s money for a local motel room and is facing life on the street.

And yet she claims it’s everybody else’s fault.

Adams was jailed Thursday after refusing to disclose a possible 16th pregnancy to the judge. She can leave jail merely by “answering that question and identifying everyone who may visit her home, including relatives.” She has refused thusfar.

Regional Director of the Florida Department of Children and Families, Nick Cox, is confused by Adams’ behavior:

“Our goal is to keep the kids together,” Cox said after the half-hour hearing. “We still will try to make this family a family.”

Adams’ actions have perplexed him, he said.

“I am baffled that in the face of going to jail and in the face of losing all her children, she still refuses to cooperate,” Cox said.

In the interim, Adams’ children remain, together, in the care of a local child welfare agency and will reside at foster care shelter A Kid’s Place.