Baby Sitter Pleads Guilty to Kidnaping Boy

A 44-year-old woman who applied for a baby-sitting job with a Van Nuys couple, then stole their 3-month-old son, pleaded guilty Wednesday to kidnaping.

Cossette Vivas of Pasadena told police that she took the baby Jan. 2 because she recently had miscarried and feared her boyfriend would leave her unless they had a child to raise, court records show.

Overcome with guilt, Vivas deposited the infant, Rudy L. Ortega, in a pew at a Highland Park church the next day, her attorney said. The boy was returned to his parents unharmed.

Vivas faces a maximum of 11 years in state prison when she is sentenced April 1 in Van Nuys Superior Court.

However, her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Barry A. Taylor, said he will urge the sentencing judge to impose probation and a short jail term. Taylor said Vivas, a divorced mother of three, has no record and has been a responsible adult all her life.

Taylor blamed the incident on “psychological pressures” that caused Vivas to “do something atypical.”

In statements to police, Vivas, who has worked for escrow and insurance firms, said she had been seeing a man for 2 1/2 years and became pregnant, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah S. Elliot.

When she miscarried in November, in her fifth month of pregnancy, Vivas hid the fact from the boyfriend, fearing the relationship would end, Elliot said.

“He is a good man, but he was unhappy,” Vivas told police in a taped interview. “When I got pregnant, everyone was happy.”

Vivas said she continued to wear maternity clothes while launching a plan to kidnap a baby, police records show.

“I became desperate to get a child,” she told investigators. “I knew that if he found out that I didn’t have a baby that he would leave me.”

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Vivas answered an ad in a Spanish-language newspaper and went to the home of Javier Ortega and Rosa Haydee Medina, who were looking for a live-in baby sitter to care for their 3-month-old and 2-year-old sons.

“When I found out that I had the job, I planned to take the child,” Vivas told police.

Alone with the two children on Jan. 2, Vivas “took the baby and ran,” leaving the older child asleep in the house, according to her taped statement.

Vivas said she soon wanted to return the baby to the couple but was concerned that she might be arrested, so she left the boy in a church where a woman was playing an organ.

Vivas was arrested Jan. 6 after police traced her through phone records of conversations she had with the couple after she responded to the ad.

Taylor said Vivas pleaded guilty to the charge rather than face a preliminary hearing because the evidence was overwhelming. Psychological reports are being prepared for the sentencing hearing. Taylor said Vivas’ boyfriend was at the court hearing Wednesday in a show of support for her.