McMurry said the Hilgers specifically asked the social-service workers if there was any history of sexual abuse involving the boys and were told no.

"They were very, very concerned about protecting those children," McMurry said.
McMurry said another state social worker, based in Shelby County and vocaloid cosplay costumes  assigned to work with the Hilgers, tried unsuccessfully to get case files on the boys before the adoptions were finalized in late 2004 and early 2005.
The worker did get the files later in 2005, which documented the boys' past involvement in sexual misconduct, and provided them to the family, McMurry said.
When the Hilgers learned of the boys' past misconduct, Beverly Hilger said, they refused to renege on the adoption — but as precautions, they installed alarms, baby monitors and locks on the girls' bedroom doors, with keys that only the parents and girls had.
Only later, beginning in 2007, did they begin to learn that the boys had found opportunities to abuse the girls, Beverly Hilger said.
That's when the younger boy admitted to molesting Ashley and threatening her if she ever revealed it, according to the lawsuit. Another sister also told the Hilgers that the boy had molested two younger, developmentally disabled girls in the family.
Beverly Hilger said in an interview that she reported the abuse to the cabinet: "Their response was it was child-on-child and there was nothing they could do about it.
"We put our girls in counseling as quick as we could. We advocated for the younger boy to get into a sex offender's program to try to get him the help he needed."
Hilger said the younger boy has since apologized for his wrongdoing and is now living on his own as an adult in another state. He has not been charged with a crime.
In 2010, Ashley reported to her parents that she had been sexually abused by the older adopted son, Jose A. Rodriguez, who was by then an adult. He is now awaiting an Oct. 30 trial on a felony charge of sexual abuse against Ashley, according to the Shelby Circuit Court clerk's office.
Ashley said she initially didn't report Rodriguez, saying she was conflicted emotionally because he was her adoptive brother and she didn't want to damage his hopes of making a better life. She said she reported him after the abuse continued.
Beverly Hilger said she is emotionally torn, but justice needs to be done.
"When you adopt a child, you have to stand before a judge and raise your hand and swear ... you will care for this child as if born of your body," she said. "I took those words seriously. ... Unfortunately, our children can do wrong and have to be punished."
But state workers "need to be held accountable too," she said.
Beverly Hilger said the case illustrates a "cancer that has been eating away at our system under the guise of protecting our children.
"I'm not saying we've got the answer for what's right. I'm saying something's broken here that needs to  trafalgar law costume   be fixed. and the only way we're going to fix it is if everybody knows about it."