Canoga Park Woman Denies Bilking Couples in Adoption of Baby

A 28-year-old Canoga Park woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that she duped two couples who had responded to an advertisement she placed in a local shopping guide offering her unborn baby for adoption.

A preliminary hearing on two counts of grand theft was set for July 10 in Van Nuys Superior Court for Jana Marie Brown, who is being held in lieu of $40,000 bail.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Herbert R. Lapin had asked Judge Michael E. Knight to increase bail from $20,000 after noting that Brown was previously convicted of a similar charge and that another child she put up for adoption reportedly was born addicted to cocaine.

Brown, who police said is an admitted drug addict, was arrested Sunday at a Canoga Park motel--her home for at least a month--after two couples complained to police that Brown had deceived them.

One couple, who live in Simi Valley, told police they had paid Brown $2,500 for living and hospital expenses after she promised they could adopt her baby. But police said Brown made a similar promise to a Northridge couple, who told investigators they had given Brown $1,000.

The two couples, who had responded to Brown’s advertisement in a May edition of the Recycler weekly ad publication, met after the motel manager told the Simi Valley couple about the Northridge couple. The couples compared notes and discovered that they all were planning to adopt Brown’s baby.

The couples then filed a complaint with police.

Police are investigating the possibility that four other couples may also have been duped by Brown, who police said apparently has used several aliases including Janice Robinson and Janet Wood.

Brown told police that she is nearly eight months pregnant with her eighth child. Four others had reportedly been adopted and two were in foster homes. Police said the whereabouts of the seventh child are unclear.

Lapin said Brown was convicted in 1988 of grand theft, although it was not immediately known if similar circumstances were involved in that case.