Father Denies Trying to Dupe Surrogate, Wife

Robert Moschetta never attempted to dupe either his wife or the surrogate mother they hired to bear his child, his attorney said Thursday.

“There are easier ways to get a child than this, believe me,” Moschetta said into a jumble of microphones at the conclusion of four days of testimony in Orange County Superior Court over custody of his 10-month-old daughter.

In the courtroom and in hallway interviews, Moschetta and his attorney disputed earlier testimony that Moschetta had agreed to reconcile with his wife only in a bid to get custody.

He also denied accusations by other witnesses that he had tried to trick the surrogate mother into signing away her rights to the child.

“He created this problem out of an excess of honesty and fair play, not a willingness to cheat, dupe or lie,” said Moschetta’s attorney, Edie W. Warren. “The man spent $27,000 for the baby. I will not tell you what he’s spent in legal fees. If he had wanted to ditch his wife and have a child, wouldn’t it have been cheaper, easier and more certain to divorce her, (marry a younger woman) and have a child?”

But under cross-examination Thursday, Moschetta testified that he would have done “almost anything” to get the baby.

Even lie? asked Harold F. La Flamme, the baby’s court-appointed attorney.

“I don’t know,” Moschetta replied.

In a tangled and increasingly bitter battle, Moschetta, 35, his estranged wife, Cynthia, 51, and Elvira Jordan, 42, the surrogate they hired for $10,000, are all seeking custody of the 10-month-old girl. The Moschettas named the baby Marissa; Jordan calls her Melissa. She is now living with Robert Moschetta in Lakewood.

On Monday, Judge Nancy Weiben Stock ruled that Cynthia Moschetta has no legal right to the child. After closing arguments scheduled for Thursday, the judge will decide whether Jordan, who has seen the baby just once since birth but whose egg was involved in the conception, is the child’s legal mother.

It is possible, though considered unlikely, that the judge will find that the child does not have a legal mother.

Robert Moschetta has asked for sole custody and has in the past opposed any visiting privileges either by Jordan or by his estranged wife, who mothered the child for the first six months of the baby’s life.

Earlier this week, Jordan’s attorney, Jeri R. McKeand, said if Robert Moschetta succeeds in persuading the court to terminate the surrogate’s parental rights, his daughter will have no mother. Moschetta denied this.

“Well, who will be the baby’s mother?” McKeand asked.

“I will be the baby’s mother,” Robert Moschetta replied.

La Flamme, the child’s attorney, grilled Moschetta on Thursday about why and how he left his wife on Nov. 30, 1990, and took the 6-month-old child with him. La Flamme demanded to know whether Moschetta had considered the effect of removing the child from her then-mother.

“Did you think Mrs. Moschetta loved the child?” La Flamme asked.

“She appeared to love the child,” Moschetta said.

“Did the child appear to love her?” La Flamme said.

“Appeared to,” Moschetta said.

“Didn’t that concern you?” La Flamme said.

“I don’t believe so,” Moschetta answered.

Moschetta said he had consulted with a psychotherapist about how to keep stability in the child’s life when he moved out of the couple’s Santa Ana home.

But under further pounding from La Flamme, Moschetta acknowledged that he had arranged to keep the child’s nanny, to have his sister come from Pennsylvania to look after the baby and to have her taken from the home without his wife’s knowledge.

“You lied to her (Cynthia Moschetta) . . . about where the child was, isn’t that true?” La Flamme asked.

“Yes,” Moschetta replied.

“When you removed the child from the home in secret and hid her with relatives you brought from Pennsylvania in secret, you were really thinking about your own needs, weren’t you?” La Flamme demanded.

“No,” Moschetta said.

“You were really thinking about the child’s needs?”

“Yes.”

La Flamme said he will ask for a study by a child psychologist before recommending custody arrangements to the court. He said he is concerned that Jordan would be a complete stranger to the child.

La Flamme said he is also concerned “about the precipitous way the child was removed from the family home, and I’m concerned about her continuing separation from Mrs. Moschetta.”

After testimony ended Thursday, Jordan--who has refused to speak to reporters--said she is “praying” for a favorable ruling.

“I want my baby,” she said. “All I want is my baby.”