How can something like this happen?

Scott D. Francis isn't rich or charming or handsome. But he has an unsettling way of getting what he wants.

When the convicted pedophile wanted his kids back, he got them.

As it turned out, all he had to do was ask.

Five years ago, the 41-year-old Northville man molested a young girl who was living in the foster home of Francis' mother. Francis became a licensed foster parent and tried to adopt her, officials say.

When his young victim was instead awarded to a couple, Francis adopted a brother and sister, now 9 and 11.

The girl he had molested called authorities after she learned of the adoptions, and the criminal justice system charged ahead.

Francis was tried twice in Wayne County Circuit Court on rape charges. After the second jury deadlocked, the prosecutor reluctantly agreed to a misdemeanor plea deal the judge called "not unjust ... but lenient."

He pleaded no contest to two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a misdemeanor.

Francis got five years' probation and a severe lecture from Wayne County Judge Brian Sullivan about not having contact with children and not having unsupervised contact with his own children.

But -- oops -- the court clerk forgot to include any details about children in the probation order. And the judge signed it anyway.

The kids, living with Grandma, didn't have a lawyer. Over the river and through the woods in Northville, Grandma's house was the very same residence where Francis had already preyed on that young girl.

Can you guess what happened next?

Francis, who briefly metamorphosed into a barricaded gunman on the evening news, is now being charged with raping his son.

How thre hell does the court clerk forget something of that magnitude? I know hindsight is 20/20 but jeez, a little foresiight would be nice occasionally.