DAVIS MOM CHANGED MIND, LAWYER SAYS

Ted Bell

SACRAMENTO BEE

The 20-year-old Davis woman who claims she was bullied into surrendering her baby for adoption simply changed her mind about giving her up, an adoption agency's lawyer charged Friday.

Timothy Murphy, attorney for Children's Home Society of California, repeatedly asked Lea Tyler Darrah about her failure to tell her parents of her pregnancy or the April 14, 1991, birth of her daughter Michelle in a University of California, Davis, dormitory bathroom.

The cross-examination came during the third day of testimony in a non-jury trial in Woodland before Yolo County Superior Court Judge William Lebov.

Darrah filed suit against the children's home and the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Davis seeking to invalidate the document she and Michelle's father signed, relinquishing custody when Michelle was only 20 days old.

Murphy pointedly reminded Darrah that she made no efforts to seek prenatal education or care, failed to seek medical care for the baby or herself until 11 days after the birth.

Darrah said that she was confused, disoriented and scared.

Denying that she purposely would avoid having a safe delivery, Darrah said softly and deliberately, "I would never, in my life, have planned to give birth to Michelle on a bathroom floor."

Later she said, "Things were happening that I couldn't stop . . . I had no say in the matter."

"Our position is that the plaintiffs (Lea and Matthew Darrah, who now are married) knew exactly what they were doing, and they have simply changed their minds," Murphy said.

"We believe the testimony - once it's all in - will corroborate our position," he said.

Brenda Russo, representing the Darrahs, has claimed that Crisis Prevention Centers, a subsidiary of Christian Action Council, have worked "through coercion" to force frightened young women in giving up their babies. She said Friday that she will be calling on such a woman to testify.

"Unfortunately, (the Darrahs) are not unique at all," she said. "Unless something happens by way of court intervention, it will be allowed to continue, and there will be other young girls who will find themselves losing their babies as a result of these unlawful actions."

Marie Brown, director of the Davis Crisis Prevention Center, has said her staff did everything possible to tell Lea Darrah about all of her options besides adoption and that they offered to help her get Michelle back.