Years of sexual and physical abuse of multiple adopted children in his care should be enough for a federal agency to rescind a Wyoming couple’s National Adoption Excellence Award, Gov. Mark Gordon says.
Acting on a letter from a former Wyoming woman, Gordon is petitioning the Administration for Children and Families to pull back the 2013 award given to Steven and Kristen Marler.
Steven Marler was sentenced in August to 128-178 years in prison for sexually and physically abusing two adopted daughters, as well as physical abuse of four other children in the couple’s care.
While the Marlers were praised as examples of the best adoptive parents in the nation before the abuse was discovered, it’s now appropriate to retroactively revoke the award, Gordon said in a Monday statement.
“The events and conviction are inconsistent with the principles and standards upon which the Children’s Bureau’s National Adoption Excellence Award is founded,” he wrote in a Dec. 15 letter to the agency’s Region 8 manager, Marilyn Kennerson, based in Denver.
Steven Marler’s conviction “fundamentally violate the ideals, morals, and ethics embodied in the award, and challenges the credibility of the program that honors those exemplifying excellence in child welfare,” Gordon wrote.
Kennerson didn’t respond by publication time to messages about whether the agency had received the governor’s request and would revoke the award.
‘That’s Just Not Right’
That the list of the best foster parents in the nation still shows Steven and Kristen Marler bothers Sharon Kassel a lot — so much so that she wrote to Gordon urging him to do something about it.
Born and raised in the Casper area, and now living in Washington state, Kassel told Cowboy State Daily that her niece was one of the primary investigators on Marler’s case.
The details that came out about how Steven Marler sexually abused girls for years and tortured other foster kids in his care are “disturbing and haunting,” Kassel said.
“That’s just not right,” she said. “I felt I just had to put myself out there and say this should not be the eventual outcome. People should see what they have done and see how false that award is (to stand).”
She said what those children went through will affect them for life, and that “it’s mind-boggling” how it happened for years without anyone having a clue about the abuse.
“It’s very grim, and I can’t even imagine what the young women and young boys went through — and then sharing that information about what they experienced in that home,” Kassel said. “It probably happens more than we would care to hear about.”
Powerful Testimony
Some of the most powerful testimony during Steven Marler’s trial came from one of his foster daughters, who detailed how he molested her for years, including a rape that made her cry out in pain.
The oldest daughter was 21 when she testified in April, but said he started abusing her when she was about 9 or 10.
That also would’ve been at the same time the National Adoption Excellence Award was given to the Marlers, one of three in the nation given that year.
She also testified that the children weren’t given enough food and that as she grew older, Steven Marler turned his attention to other targets.
“Steven no longer had interest in me, and he was moving on to the younger girls,” she said.
Other testimony revealed physical abuse of a boy in the home and that Marler told one of the girls he abused that, “I know I shouldn’t love you like this.”
For her part, Kassel said she’s grateful that Gordon saw her letter and acted on it.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
