The State - News from Jan. 28, 1988

An investigation has been ordered into an Oakland jail prisoner’s charges that she was handcuffed and chained for several hours while in labor. “This is outrageous,” Alameda County Supervisor Charlie Santana said of Karen Hobson’s charges. “I hope she is not telling the truth,” he said after the board ordered the probe. The baby boy’s father is Kevin Anderson, 36, who faces federal conspiracy charges for allegedly plotting to sell a supercomputer to the Soviet Union. Undersheriff Bud Garrigan said the woman was held in restraints briefly on Jan. 18 when the deputy left the room to report to headquarters that Hobson, 31, had gone into labor. Hobson’s arrest warrant was issued in October when she missed a court hearing, where she was to prove enrollment in a court-ordered drug detoxification program.