Westminster : Pregnant Woman, 18, to Go to Trial in Kidnaping

An 18-year-old woman, who is five months pregnant, was ordered Friday to stand trial for the kidnaping of a baby girl from a Garden Grove day-care center.

Darlene Johnson was ordered to appear May 18 in Superior Court in connection with the kidnaping of Victoria Marie Clark, who was 14 months old when she was taken March 26 from the Young Horizons day-care center in Garden Grove.

According to testimony Friday at a hearing in Westminster before Municipal Judge Marvin G. Weeks, Johnson visited Young Horizons three times that day to inquire about day care for an infant daughter and a niece. Center director Diane Reed said that after Johnson’s third visit, Reed discovered the Clark baby was missing.

Garden Grove Police Investigator Pam French said a neighbor’s tip led police to a nearby house that night. French arrested Johnson and then escorted her to a bedroom to allow the suspect to change clothes, she said. In the bedroom, the investigator spotted the corner of a baby blanket on a closet floor, and when she pulled the blanket out, she found Victoria Clark, she said.

Johnson’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender James R. Appel, argued that there was no evidence presented Friday that Johnson took the baby. When she was seen leaving the day-care center after her third visit, Johnson did not have the baby, he argued.

Johnson, who was pregnant at the time of the kidnaping, “was extremely confused and having emotional problems” when the incident occurred, Appel said after the hearing.

“What she needs most now is counseling, and she’s not going to receive that in jail,” he said.