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.
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