Woman in Baby Sale Case Faces Charges; Husband Is Released

TIJUANA —  An Illinois woman jailed here has been formally charged with attempting to buy a 1-year-old Mexican girl, but authorities said Friday that her husband had been released from jail.

Bette Winks, 49, whose last known address is in rural Hudson, Ill., has been charged under a Mexican statute known as “illegal deprivation of liberty,” said Alejandro Vasquez Rivera, a state judge for Baja California.

Also charged under that statute, authorities said, is Ivonne Lopez, 31, a Mexican citizen who has maintained a home in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles, and who has another here. Lopez allegedly was paid $3,000 for securing the child for Bette Winks.

If convicted, Vasquez said, each woman could face a 15-year prison term.

Attorneys for the women could not be reached for comment. Bette Winks declined to be interviewed about the matter.

Charles H. Winks, 46, was released from custody because no proof was found linking him to the alleged scheme, said Agent Miguel Martinez Magana of the Baja California State Judicial Police.

The Tijuana arrests are but the latest child-custody-related controversy in the bizarre saga of the Winkses, parents of eight natural children who in 1982 were one of 12 couples honored by Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson as that state’s “Adoptive Parents of the Year.” Prompting the award was the Winkses’ adoption of two children with Down’s Syndrome, a severe mental handicap.

Since the award was made, Illinois authorities twice raided the Winks’ home, removing a total of 12 children--including six Mexican-born infants--because the couple could not prove that they had legal custody of the youngsters, said Tom Teague, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in Springfield, Ill. Two of the children were linked to a border baby-selling ring that U.S. authorities in San Diego broke last year.

Another of the children--a 1-year-old boy--was later returned to his home state of Louisiana, where officials determined that his mother had sold him to the Winkses for $2,500, according to Illinois authorities. Although the natural mother was later convicted of selling her child, authorities said no charges were filed against the Winkses, who have maintained that they never purchased a child but rather only provided money for children’s upkeep.

At times, the Winkses have housed as many as 24 children, almost half of them infants, according to Illinois authorities. They have adopted children from New York, Oklahoma, Illinois and Mexico, authorities said. Baby-sitters apparently were employed to help care for the youngsters.

There have never been any charges of child abuse against the Winkses, authorities said.

“They’re totally dedicated to children in their lives; they feel that’s why they were placed on this Earth,” said Charles Reynard, an attorney in Bloomington, Ill., who represented the Winkses in a custody case against the state. “They don’t go out and socialize a lot, they don’t party, they don’t drink, they don’t smoke. . . . They commit all their personal and financial resources to raising their family.”

However, authorities have questioned their motives.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that they love children,” said Ron Dozier, a state attorney for McLean County, Ill., where the Winkses live, “but I think it reaches a point where it gets pathological. . . . Their basement was like a dormitory, with bed after bed after bed. You’re talking about having 15 kids in a house, with no one over 5 years old.”

Dozier said an Illinois arrest warrant is pending against Bette Winks for charges stemming from a confrontation with sheriff’s deputies who came to her house to take custody of children. He said the Winkses have been “on the lam” for several months and were believed to be living in California.

“I guess you’d fight too if someone came to take your kids,” said Howard Winks, at 25 the oldest of the couple’s natural children. Howard is running his father’s service station in Bloomington. Bette Winks is a former schoolteacher.

In the current case, Mexican authorities allege that Ivonne Lopez used a ruse on Jan. 17 to gain control of the 1-year old daughter of Maria Enriqueta Millan Tostado, 31, of Tijuana. The child was allegedly turned over to Bette Winks for $3,000.

Last Saturday, according to official accounts, police who had been watching Lopez’s Tijuana home arrested her and the Winks there. The child was found in possession of Lopez and eventually returned to her natural mother, Martinez of the State Judicial Police said.

According to Howard Winks, the couple was traveling in Tijuana with four children ranging in age from 5 to 16, three of whom are afflicted with Down’s syndrome.

Tijuana juvenile authorities cared for the children while the couple was in jail, according to Mexican authorities. It was expected that Charles Winks would regain custody of the children now that the charges have been dropped, Martinez said.