Torry Hansen sits with her attorney, Ed Yarbrough, in a Marshall County courtroom.
Hansen sent her adopted son back to Russia in 2010.MARSHALL COUNTY, Tenn. -
The former Tennessee woman who put her adopted son on a plane back to Russia says the boy was violent and threatened to kill her and her parents.
In a court appearance Friday afternoon in Marshall County, Torry Hansen testified the boy, Artyom Saveliev, even threatened to burn their house down.
"I can say that he wanted to kill me. I can say that he tried to kill my sister and that he started a fire and after he started a fire that is when my parents decided because he started it in their home to send him back," Hansen said.
Hansen, in her first ever court appearance relating to the case, asked a judge to reconsider his order given earlier this year requiring her to pay $150,000 in child support.
She claimed in court filings the child support would not benefit the boy, but would get lost in a bureaucratic system.
On the stand Friday, Hansen said it was her parents who primarily made decision to send the child back to Russia because they had taken over custody.
"They primarily made the decision," she said.
In the end, Judge Lee Russell refused to set aside his judgment.
"She simply has not cooperated," Russell said.
Hansen was living in Bedford County when she returned the boy in 2010 with a letter saying she didn't want to be his mother.
He's now living in a group home in a Moscow suburb.
Hansen's adoption agency, World Association for Children and Parents, sued her for child support.
Larry Crain, attorney for the adoption agency, says his reports from Russia are totally different than the picture painted by Hansen and the boy is "not violent."
"I find any remark that this child was a threat to be totally incredible based on information we have gotten from our team that has actually visited the child in Russia and come back with glowing reports of now a very adjusted little boy," Crain said.
Towards the end of her testimony, Hansen apologized to the judge directly for her actions.
She also added she had a baby last fall and currently lives in Redding, California.
Hansen arrived with her attorney, Ed Yarbrough, shortly after Noon for Friday's 1 p.m. hearing.
She declined to comment.
Yarbrough indicated in child support cases it is common to periodically to come back to discuss payments.
Previous Stories:
- June 20, 2012: Mom who returned adopted son asks judge to set aside child support order
- May 16, 2012: Mom who sent adopted son back must pay thousands, judge says
- April 12, 2012: Russian wants U.S. woman to testify over adoption
- March 7, 2012: Mom who returned adopted son liable for child support, judge rules
- Feb. 2, 2012: Mom to face deposition in Russian adopted boy case
- Jan. 23, 2012: Woman who returned Russian adopted boy faces suit
- Nov. 21, 2011: Judge rules Russian adoption case will be open
- Oct. 27, 2011: Returned Russian boy could be added to lawsuit
- Oct. 13, 2011: Trial of lawsuit set in return of Russian boy
- July 30, 2010: Attorney: Returned Russian boy back in orphanage
- April 14, 2010: Driver says Russian boy seemed cheerful
- April 13, 2010: No charges yet against mom in adoption case
- April 12, 2010: Location crucial to charges in adoption case, DA says
- April 11, 2010: Questions continue to surround Shelbyville adoption gone wrong
- April 9, 2010: Local mother weighs in on Russian adoption process
- April 9, 2010: Shelbyville woman returns adopted son to Russia
