Woman suspected of buying newborn girl

                      By Emily Bazar
                      Bee Staff Writer
                      (Published July 26, 1997)

          Four years ago, a Rancho Cordova woman befriended a pregnant
          prostitute, bought her newborn girl for $20 and spent the next four
          years raising the child as her own, deputies said Friday.

          Two days before the girl was to celebrate her birthday with a party
          at home wearing a new tie-dye outfit, 41-year-old Leah Codell Bracken
          was arrested Thursday on suspicion of purchasing a human being,
          welfare fraud and perjury.

          Taken into protective custody was the youngster, who turns 4 today,
          said Sgt. Jim Cooper, Sacramento sheriff's spokesman.

          Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Department is searching for the birth
          mother: a prostitute named Dee who may have sold up to four other
          children, Cooper said.

          It's a tale that even weathered law enforcement officials have a hard
          time believing. But they all agree that the little girl, identified
          by family members as Madeline, is the real victim.

          "In this job, you think you've heard everything, but this is just
          unbelievable," Cooper said. "I feel sorry for the little girl," whom
          he described as "very happy and outgoing."

          Earlier this week, investigators were tipped to the alleged sale and
          launched an investigation that led to Bracken's arrest Thursday at
          her Rancho Cordova four-plex unit in the 2000 block of Benita Drive.

          Bracken is being held at the Sacramento County jail in lieu of
          $15,000 bail. She declined comment Friday, rejecting a request for a
          jailhouse interview.

          Sheriff's officials relate the following bizarre chain of events,
          pieced together from interviews with numerous sources:

          About four years ago, Bracken befriended a pregnant prostitute, known
          as Dee, in her 20s. Two days after Dee gave birth to a little girl on
          July 26, 1993, she was arrested.

          Friends caring for the infant took the child to Bracken's home in a
          dresser drawer.

          Within a week, Dee showed up at Bracken's home and offered to sell
          the baby for $1,000. Bracken said she only had $20, which Dee
          accepted as a down payment. Dee was to return later for the rest of
          the money, but never did.

          In the four years since then, Madeline was raised by Bracken, who
          falsified the girl's birth certificate and other documents, according
          to deputies.

          Bracken currently is unemployed and has two sons, ages 17 and 19,
          according to relatives, who worry about Madeline.

          Tamicka Jordan, whose brother is Bracken's nephew, said she doesn't
          know if Bracken bought the baby. She said, however, that she had
          never seen Bracken pregnant with Madeline.

          Jordan said the relationship between Madeline and Bracken was a
          loving one. Bracken coached the girl on her ABCs three times a day,
          and mother and daughter had a pet name for each other: "Boompies,"
          she said.

          Bracken should pay the consequences if she did something illegal,
          Jordan said, but Madeline shouldn't be separated from the family she
          was raised with.

          "Even if that woman sold Madeline to (Bracken), this is the only
          family she has known," she said. "Madeline's going to be destroyed
          for the rest of her life if she's not going to be with us."

          Cooper said it's unlikely that Bracken will ever regain custody.

          "The life this little girl led was probably better than she would
          have had with her birth mother," Cooper said. "But how much better, I
          can't say."

          Bracken has twice been convicted of felonies, court records show.

          In 1988, she pleaded guilty to being an accessory to a burglary and
          was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail. In 1992, she was
          sentenced to another 90 days in jail for welfare fraud.

          Bracken is scheduled to appear in court Monday to hear what charges
          she will face.

          In addition to the fraud, perjury and child-purchase charges, Bracken
          is being held on suspicion of felony child molest. Cooper said she
          allowed Madeline, nearly 4, to suckle on her breasts.

          "To me, if the mother's not lactating or not nursing, then why is the
          4-year-old suckling?" he said.

          Janett Burruel, a Sacramento lactation consultant, said that although
          she isn't familiar with the case, she finds Bracken's motives in
          allowing the little girl to suckle "questionable."

          "She's not the baby's (biological) mom and she never made milk," for
          Madeline, she said. "It doesn't sound OK to me."

          But Liz Baldwin, chairman of La Leche League International's Legal
          Advisory Council, said nursing, even up to the age of 6, is normal
          and shouldn't be considered "molestation."

          "It shows how bonded she was to the child. . . . Many times breast
          feeding at age 4 is really just for (the baby's) comfort. We would
          not be shocked to find out a 4-year-old was sucking their thumb or
          had a pacifier," she said.

          "Regardless of whether the woman did something wrong, the truth is
          that breast feeding is an act of nurture," she said.