Surrogate Mom Is Charged With Welfare Fraud : Investigation: The woman, who faces felony charges, has joint custody of a child she bore for a former O.C. couple.

A surrogate mother who won joint custody of the baby girl she bore for a former Orange County couple has been charged with welfare fraud, county authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Elvira Jordan, 42, faces felony charges of receiving more than $8,500 in welfare aid through misrepresentation, perjury and filing false and forged documents, authorities said.

“Basically, she failed to report the money that she received as a result of her surrogate contract,” said Steven Block, deputy director of investigations for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. “She also failed to report that she was receiving free rent.”

Jordan is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles County Municipal Court in Huntington Park today for a preliminary hearing, which will determine if there is sufficient evidence to bring her to trial, authorities said.

Richard C. Gilbert, Jordan’s attorney, said his client is not guilty.

“You see this in every birth mother case,” Gilbert said. “Instead of going after real criminals, they go after the victims in these flesh peddling cases, the birth mothers.”

Jordan received about $10,000 after entering a surrogate contract in 1989 with Cynthia and Robert Moschetta of Santa Ana. Through artificial insemination, Jordan gave birth to a girl on May, 28, 1990.

The criminal charges represent the latest wrinkle in the seemingly never-ending custody saga between Jordan and Robert Moschetta, the biological father of the child.

Jordan, who lives in the Los Angeles County suburb of Cudahy, sued for custody of the baby in December, 1990, after she discovered that the Moschettas had separated. She contended that she only agreed to be a surrogate because she believed the child would go to a happy, committed couple.

During the trial, which later was featured on the national television newsmagazine program “48 Hours,” Jordan, Robert Moschetta and his ex-wife bitterly fought over visitation and custody rights.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled early in the trial last September that Cynthia Moschetta did not have any biological ties to the baby and denied her any visitation rights. Then, in a surprise ruling, the judge ordered that Jordan and Robert Moschetta should share custody of the now-2-year-old girl, Marissa Jordan Moschetta.

Since the ruling, Robert Moschetta, who now lives in Lakewood, has tried unsuccessfully to have the court find that Jordan has repeatedly violated the terms of the custody arrangement.

On Tuesday, Jordan’s attorney charged that Robert Moschetta “played a role in bringing about this prosecution.”

Robert Moschetta could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Edie W. Warren, declined to comment on the charges against Jordan but suggested that she might petition the court to change the custody arrangement if Jordan is convicted.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jack Delavigne, the supervising attorney of the Huntington Park office, said that the charges against Jordan were filed June 1. He said that if convicted, Jordan would face a maximum prison term of four years, four months but would most likely only be given county jail time of less than a year and probation.

Gilbert characterized the charges as a “silly little prosecution against a welfare mother.” He said that Jordan was only following the instructions of a surrogate broker when she filed her welfare documents.

Jordan was told that the $10,000 from the surrogate contract “was not income,” Gilbert said. “She was told by the flesh peddlers that it was for child support, legal services and medical care.

“She’s not guilty because she didn’t intend to commit fraud against the county of Los Angeles,” Gilbert said.

In another high-profile surrogacy case in Orange County, surrogate Anna L. Johnson pleaded guilty in September, 1990, to welfare fraud and agreed to repay more than $4,400 to the government. Her charges were apparently unrelated to her surrogate contract.