Mother, Daughter Are Charged With Illegal Practice of Medicine

Both the undercover police cadet and the officer were young enough to look like a teen-age couple in love--and in trouble. When they knocked on the door of Rafaela Duarte Vargas’ home in Placentia, they pretended that the cadet was pregnant.

According to police, Vargas, 64, and her daughter, Aurora Herlinda, 36, told the young woman she could either have an abortion or go through with the birth and give the baby to them.

Due in Court

Today, the two women are scheduled to be arraigned in North Orange County Municipal Court in Fullerton on charges of practicing medicine without a license.

The women were arrested Friday and remain in Orange County Jail with bail set at $10,000 each.

To family members and some neighbors, the arrests came as a shock. Relatives interviewed Monday claimed that police entrapped the women.

“Nothing they (police) say is true, nothing is true,” said Manuel Vargas, Rafaela’s son, who shares the house in the 200 block of South Melrose Street with his mother.

“I want them to show me where are these women who they said had abortions here,” he said.

Placentia Police Lt. Daryll Thomann said the undercover police cadet, now a reserve officer, was offered a shot to induce an abortion, and “she graciously backed out.” She was also given medication for morning sickness, Thomann said.

The male undercover officer taped discussions at six meetings at the house, Thomann said.

“We have all conversations wired,” he said.

Police also confiscated syringes, bottles of capsules, contraceptives, tranquilizers and other pills, most of which they have yet to identify since most are from Mexico and are labeled in Spanish. They also confiscated $6,000 in cash, which Manuel Vargas said was his family’s life savings and was needed to pay bills.

Police said they do not know how many people may have come to the house for treatment.

Thomann said the undercover cadet, who pretended she was two or three months pregnant when she first approached the women, was told of two options for her pregnancy: Have an abortion or give birth. The couple were encouraged to do the latter, according to police.

“They tried to talk the couple into having a baby, and they would provide a home for it,” Thomann said.

Manuel Vargas said his sister, Aurora Vargas, planned to adopt the baby.

Rafaela Vargas has worked as a cook for 20 years at the Tlaquepaque Restaurant, which is two blocks away but has not worked for about six months because of a broken wrist, said Gloria Davis, the restaurant’s manager.

Aurora Vargas is a nurse in Mexico and visits occasionally, according to family members.

Manuel Vargas said the medications in the house belong to his family. “In all homes, there are medicines,” he said.

According to Thomann, Rafaela Vargas told police that the medications were for the family’s personal use and sometimes for friends who stopped by and complained of aches and pains.

Anonymous Complaint

Police first received an anonymous complaint in a letter about two years ago that alleged that illegal abortions were conducted at the house, but the information was too sketchy to lead anywhere, Thomann said. Last year, a second anonymous letter about an illegal abortion clinic arrived with an address. In July, the undercover couple were sent out to the house.

Emily Martinez, who has rented the house in back of her own to Rafaela Vargas for seven years, described the family as “very nice people” and said she was very upset about the allegations against her tenant.

“I know she (Rafaela) didn’t do those terrible things,” Martinez said.

Other neighbors said they were surprised by the arrests at the home, which is surrounded by houses and apartments in the city’s run-down Santa Fe neighborhood.

“If she had a clinic, we would know,” said Guadalupe Hernandez, 42, who lives on the block. “Word gets around.”