Roslyn lawyer pleads not guilty to adoption scam

The baby in the sonogram pictures was supposed to be born in February.

Brigid and Benjamin Vogt, the Seaford couple who hoped to adopt the child, had taken out a $20,000 loan to pay the costs.

"I was so happy," Brigid Vogt said Wednesday. "I was in love with that baby."

Then, one night last month, the couple turned on the television and saw that Kevin Cohen, the attorney who was brokering their adoption, had been arrested and charged with what amounted to an adoption Ponzi scheme: taking thousands of dollars from couples in several states while promising them babies that never existed.

Not guilty plea

Wednesday, Cohen, 41, of Roslyn, pleaded not guilty to a 69-count grand jury indictment that includes multiple counts of second- and third-degree grand larceny, scheme to defraud and forgery, among other charges. If convicted, he faces 5 to 15 years on the most serious charge, but could face more time if a judge rules that he should serve his sentences consecutively, prosecutors said.

Cohen is on suicide watch in Nassau University Medical Center's prison ward, where he is being held on $500,000 bail, prosecutors said. He is due back in court Nov. 6.

"He knew we were in a vulnerable position, and he used all of that to trick us," Vogt said.

Prosecutors said Cohen scammed 13 couples from as far away as Georgia and Texas into giving him a total of more than $300,000 for adoption expenses.

He first was arrested last month when Port Washington couple Deborah and Milton Josephs, who had been promised a baby by Cohen but never received the child, brought their concerns to the Nassau County district attorney's office. A grand jury that was convened since then to consider the charges against Cohen handed up its indictment earlier this week. It was unsealed Wednesday morning before Nassau County Judge John Kase.

Cohen's defense attorney, Matin Emouna of Mineola, did not comment on the charges. He said in court that Cohen is unlikely to post bail.

One couple paid Cohen $65,000 after he claimed that he had located two prospective out-of-state birth mothers who wanted to give up their babies for adoption, prosecutors said. The birth mothers did not exist, and the sonograms and medical records that Cohen showed the prospective adoptive parents were all faked, prosecutors said.

"These stories shock the conscience," Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said after the arraignment. "These are people who just wanted to give a home to a child."

Roiling emotions

Deborah Josephs, who was in court Wednesday, said it took great strength to see through the emotions during the adoption process and to realize that she was being scammed. At the time, she said, she considered Cohen something of a friend and even cooked him dinner at her home.

"I'm glad we stepped away from our emotions for five seconds to get smart," she said.

While Josephs said she is glad that Cohen has been arrested, she added that her family's pain did not end. Rice says she is fighting to get the couples' money back, but for now Josephs said she doesn't have the money to begin the adoption process again.

"The hardest part is that there's no baby still," Josephs said. "It was a lot of money, don't get me wrong. But you can't put a price tag on a child."