Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / September 2004

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/17/BAGUV8QGRN1.DTL

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Woman's past unclear in adoption con trial
Saudi royalty, polygamy figure in testimony

Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
 Friday, September 17, 2004

 

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An Oregon woman accused of conning three Bay Area couples into believing she
could deliver them a child gave strange stories about her past, saying she once
lived in a palace with a Saudi prince and was the fourth wife of a Utah
polygamist, according to witnesses in her trial.

The Contra Costa County trial of Maya-Anne Mays, 33, continued Thursday with
prosecutor Matthew O'Connor trying to depict her as a liar who faked a
pregnancy early this year so infertile couples would pay her rent and other
expenses in the hope she'd let them adopt her baby. She's charged with three
counts of grand theft.

But defense attorney Mitchell Stevens said Mays would testify -- probably today
-- that she had been carrying the child of a soldier killed in Iraq and awoke
from an epileptic seizure March 10, just before her due date, to find she'd
miscarried. She then left the stillborn baby boy outside a hospital, Stevens
said.

Stevens provided the court with a photograph of Mays, taken early this year,
that shows her with a large belly. In addition, a pregnancy test she took at
the Pregnancy Care Center of Ogden, Utah, in January indicated she was
pregnant; however, the center is not a medical facility, and records show the
test was "self-administered."

Thursday's testimony showed that, although the three couples were suspicious of
Mays and her stories about the birth father, they badly wanted her child and
didn't question her too closely.

"Some of the stories she was telling were a little hard to believe," said John
Keller, who with his wife was introduced to Mays in January by Walnut Creek
adoption facilitator Nancy Hurwitz Kors but decided after an argument not to
work with Mays.

Keller said Mays had initially told him the birth father had died while serving
in the same regiment as Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the Army clerk taken prisoner by
Iraqis in the early days of the war.

"She was really frustrated by that," Keller said. "She felt he had died a hero.
Jessica Lynch had lived, but she was getting all the positive publicity."

Keller said his wife had tried without success to match the name of the
soldier, "Daniel Clark," with Internet reports on the war in Iraq. Later,
Keller said, he learned that Mays had claimed to have had several children
raised by a Saudi prince. Finally, he said the "real story" was that Mays was
the fourth wife of a polygamist.

"She basically had no rights because she was so far down the pecking order,"
Keller said.

Still, Keller said he and his wife pressed on, spending more than $2,000 on
Mays at Kors' urging.

"When you're trying to adopt," Keller said, "the key things you're thinking
about are that it will be a healthy baby, and that you're going to get the
baby."

The third couple to meet Mays, Bob Temple and Alette Coble-Temple of Walnut
Creek, allegedly paid her more than $9,000 for rent and other expenses. They
have filed a civil lawsuit against Mays and Kors, claiming Kors matched them
with Mays without confirming she was pregnant.

Doubts about the pregnancy quickly surfaced. A Walnut Creek obstetrician
testified that Mays had refused a physical exam and an ultrasound, saying that
it would affect a device she had implanted to prevent seizures. Finally, a
urine test showed she wasn't pregnant, the doctor said.

Police arrested Mays on March 19 after the Temples reported the alleged scam.
Stevens said Mays had already lost the baby at that point but felt so bad about
it that she hadn't told the Temples.


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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown