Pastor Lashes Out at Media : Childbirth: Melodyland Christian Center’s pastor denounces news accounts of the “first baby of the year” incident as distorted.

The pastor of a large church where the first newborn of the year was presented at a service moments after a rushed delivery lashed out at the media Thursday for questioning the event and declared that he would not hesitate to do it again.

“There wasn’t anything wrong,” said the Rev. Ralph Wilkerson of Melodyland Christian Center. “If he (the doctor) wants to bring another baby over, I’ll bless the baby.”

Wilkerson also said the baby’s presentation before 4,000 church members just minutes after midnight was not a planned event, as has been reported.

Wilkerson said Thursday that he merely suggested to Dr. Charles Wesley Turner Jr. that, because the doctor usually had expectant women in the birthing center next door to the church, he would be welcome to bring over any newborns for a public blessing during the New Year’s service at the church.

“This was not a put-up deal,” Wilkerson said. “We didn’t plan to get a baby in here. There was no plan to try and make this as spectacular as it was made out to be. A baby was born, and he brought it over.”

In separate interviews earlier this week, however, both Wilkerson and Turner said the event had been planned for three months.

Wilkerson said Tuesday: “We like to plan ahead. . . . I told him if we had a baby at the midnight hour, it will be extraordinary for our service.”

Turner said Tuesday: “He asked me three months ago, ‘Can you have one for this meeting?’ I told him yes.

“Three weeks ago when he heard John Jacobs and the Power Team,” a group of Christian weightlifters, “were coming, he asked me again. I said, ‘Sure,

I can give you a baby at 30 seconds after midnight.”

Turner’s Covenant Birthing Center is leased from Melodyland.

A congregation member, Betty Clark, 62, of Garden Grove, said Thursday that Wilkerson had informed the congregation a few days earlier that “possibly we would have a momma delivering at that time.”

Wilkerson also insisted Thursday that the event was not timed to coincide with the national broadcast of services on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Wilkerson said the television cameras were not rolling when Turner held up the baby. Wilkerson said the cameras had shut off at the stroke of midnight and that the congregation was saying the benediction.

Turner, 64, said Tuesday that he administered a spinal anesthesia called a saddle block on the mother and used forceps to hasten the birth of the baby, who was delivered at 15 seconds past midnight. Then he wrapped the newborn in a blanket, tucked the her into a Christmas stocking and hustled her next door to the service.

“All we were trying to do is say, ‘Hey, we’re happy that we had a new baby at Melodyland,’ ” Wilkerson said. “There was absolutely no danger to the baby, and I don’t care what anybody says. “

Wilkerson said the baby was at the service for only about 10 seconds, during which time “I just prayed for the child.” He added angrily: “I should have prayed for the media.”

The pastor made his comments Thursday after an outcry from some doctors in Orange County over what they called the danger in taking a newborn outside a birthing center and into a crowded place where there would be no medical facilities. Turner took the baby into the night air as he crossed a driveway separating the two buildings.

Turner said that neither the infant, Myra Kristine Palmer, nor her mother, Brigitte Palmer, was harmed by his actions.

However, the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance opened a formal investigation into the incident Wednesday, sources confirmed. In addition, Turner--a general practitioner who specializes in obstetrics--was already the subject of a state board investigation involving allegations of negligence in obstetrical care, sources close to the inquiry said. Investigators have declined to provide details, and Turner said he was unaware of the earlier inquiry.

In discussing the incident Thursday, Wilkerson expressed shock and outrage over its becoming a controversy and accused the media of distorting the events that took place at the church.

“There was nothing done wrong in this service,” Wilkerson said. “I haven’t had a single negative call. The only people unhappy are the media.”

Clark, a longtime congregation member, also lambasted news coverage of the event.

“I don’t see that Dr. Turner has done anything wrong,” Clark said. “The baby was well wrapped and his birthing center was only a few yards from our main auditorium. I wish the paper wouldn’t make it sound like it’s something terrible.”

Turner did not return calls from The Times on Thursday.

But Wilkerson said Thursday that in a conversation with Turner Wednesday night, the physician seemed to be in high spirits.

Wilkerson added, however, that this controversy has further sullied the reputation of Turner, who, he said, has suffered in the past because he has the same name as a former Orange County physician who was convicted of a felony.

The other Charles Wesley Turner is an orthopedic surgeon who had even worked at some of the same hospitals. That Turner was convicted by an Orange County Superior Court jury in 1975 of soliciting the kidnaping of his estranged wife so that she would not appear at a divorce hearing.

The surgeon served five months in Orange County Jail and was placed on five years’ probation; in addition, he was temporarily stripped of his license.

Ever since then, said the general practitioner, he occasionally has been misidentified as the man convicted of a felony. He said earlier this week that some Orange County hospitals were not “crazy” about his working for them because some patients had expressed reservations about being treated by a doctor who they thought had a criminal record.

Turner the general practitioner has been licensed to practice medicine in California since 1953 and boasts of having delivered more than 18,000 babies.

Turner the surgeon, originally from Mississippi, returned “back East” to practice several years ago, said Felix Rodriguez, supervisor of the Santa Ana state medical board office.

Staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.