Adoption Agency Founder Allegedly Paid $1,096 for Unborn Children of Pregnant Inmates

Mar. 15, 2025

Jody Hall in mugshot.Photo:Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office

Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office

The founder of a Texas adoption agency has been charged with two felony counts of sale or purchase of a child, according to her online inmate booking records.

Jody Hall, 68, wasbookedinto Hays County Jail on Thursday, July 23, and released on a $50,000 surety bond the same day.

Hall allegedly paid one woman $846 for her unborn child, per the affidavit, telling her at one point that she would halt payments if the woman’s boyfriend did not relinquish his rights to the child. “I don’t need birth moms that lie to me just to get financial support,” she added, per the affidavit.

She allegedly paid another woman $250, allegedly writing on the communication system that she would pay that woman another $2,500 “when you get out, or if you want me to put some on your books each week, I can do that," the affidavit claims.

Jody Hall is charged with two felony counts of the sale or purchase of a child.Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Texas Penal Code allows for adoption agencies tocover some pregnancy-related expensesof the birth mothers. However, as Tarrant County Jail “incurs all necessary pregnancy-related and living expenses of their inmates,” those payments were “unauthorized,” making Hall’s payments illegal, police claimed in the affidavits.

It was unclear how long the suspension lasted – or what led to it taking place – but the bureau said that for the length of the suspension the adoption agency “must cease to provide all adoption services in connection with intercountry adoption cases” and was “required to transfer their cases to another adoption service provider.”

It was not immediately clear if Hall had obtained a lawyer to represent her in the case or if she had entered pleas to the charges.

In Texas, a conviction for one count of the third degree felony sale or purchase of a childcarries a sentenceof between two and 10 years behind bars.

source: people.com