Texas mother to pay support

Jet, Sept 20, 2004

* TEXAS MOTHER TO PAY SUPPORT: Mercury Liggins exits a Houston court with her lawyer, Michael Delaney. Liggins, the adoptive mother of seven children found malnourished in a Nigerian orphanage (JET, Sept. 6), was ordered to pay $1,480 monthly in child support while the children are in the state's care.

An American missionary discovered the children, ages 8-17, at the Nigerian orphanage. An attorney for the children, Terry Lea Elizondo, asked that the payments be the same the state provided Liggins. "This mother accepted $3,500 a month from the government to care for these children, and I wonder why she shouldn't be required to pay that same amount back ..., " Elizondo said.