Richard C Gilbert

An appeals court Monday reaffirmed a surrogate mother's parental rights but ordered a lower court to once again decide who will get primary custody of a now 4-year-old girl named Marissa. Surrogate mother Elvira Jordan and biological father Robert P. Moschetta have shared parental responsibilities since an Orange County Superior Court judge in September, 1991, granted joint custody--a landmark ruling believed to be the first of its kind.

An Orange woman was so enraged by the possibility that her 10-year-old nephew was toying with her marijuana cigarettes that she seared his tongue with a red-hot knife and sexually assaulted him with a souvenir baseball bat, causing internal injuries that nearly killed the boy, a prosecutor alleged in court Friday.

Declaring that surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson has no parental rights to the baby she was hired to bear, a judge today granted full rights to the infant's genetic parents, Mark and Crispina Calvert. In a sweeping affirmation of surrogate mother contracts, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard N. Parslow Jr. also refused to continue Johnson's visitation rights to the 5-week-old baby boy while Johnson's lawyers appeal the decision.

A surrogate mother who won joint custody of a baby she bore for a former Orange County couple admitted Thursday that she committed welfare fraud and agreed to repay the government more than $8,500. Under an agreement with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, Elvira Jordan, 42, pleaded no contest to one count of welfare fraud and will be placed on three years' formal probation.

The state Supreme Court stepped warily Tuesday into the debate over surrogate motherhood, with some justices raising doubts about a woman's claim to maternal rights to a test-tube baby she bore for a childless couple. In their first review of the issue, the justices heard an appeal by Anna M. Johnson, a nurse who was denied custody of a baby boy she was paid to deliver from the sperm and egg of Mark and Crispina Calvert of Tustin in 1990. Johnson's lawyer, Richard C.

In a surprise reversal, the attorney for surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson said Tuesday that he is willing to agree that Johnson's unborn baby was conceived from the egg and sperm of the infertile couple who hired her to bear their child. Last week, Richard C.

Surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson gave birth to a boy Wednesday, more than two weeks ahead of schedule, triggering a frenzy of activity by lawyers who are warring over the child's future. Johnson, 29, and the 6-pound, 10-ounce infant were both reported to be doing well Wednesday evening at St. Joseph Hospital after a relatively short labor and uncomplicated delivery at 1:50 p.m. In a brief interview, the Garden Grove woman told The Times she was "tired," but declined to say more.

In an arrangement that was likened to the biblical tale of King Solomon, Orange County surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson tearfully agreed Friday to temporarily surrender custody of the baby she bore to the infertile couple who hired her. Her agreement will allow Mark and Crispina Calvert, who donated the sperm and egg that were implanted in Johnson, to take the baby boy home today from St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and keep him until another custody hearing can be held Thursday.

A lawyer for an Orange County surrogate mother fighting to keep the child she is carrying cast doubt Friday on the baby's parentage. Richard C. Gilbert told a Superior Court judge that until he obtains medical proof that his client, Anna Johnson, is carrying a baby created from the egg and sperm of the purported biological parents, Mark and Crispina Calvert, he cannot be certain of the child's parentage.

In the fall of 1989, Mark Calvert, an insurance underwriter, and his wife Crispina, a registered nurse, were introduced to Anna L. Johnson to talk about the possibility of surrogate parenting. The Calverts, who had been married for eight years, could not have children. Crispina Calvert, 36, was unable to carry a baby because uterine tumors forced removal of her womb.