Woman Is Indicted in False Adoption Case : Crime: Leanne Dees allegedly accepted cash from couples in the Valley and elsewhere in exchange for promises to give them her unborn babies.

An Arkansas woman was indicted Friday on charges of bilking couples in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere by falsely promising to give them her unborn babies in exchange for living expenses while she was pregnant.

Leanne Dees, 28, of Paragould, Ark., was charged with mail and wire fraud in a 15-count federal indictment unsealed Friday. She is being held at the Craighead County Jail in Jonesboro, Ark., according to court documents.

Dees allegedly called prospective parents in Granada Hills, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, Diamond Bar and elsewhere during two pregnancies, in 1989 and 1990, offering her unborn children for adoption, according to the indictment.

Each couple agreed to pay Dees’ living expenses while she was pregnant. But after the children were born, Dees failed to give either baby to any of the couples, the indictment charges.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Alka Sagar in Arkansas, who is prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment Friday and details of Dees’ arrest could not immediately be determined.

Dees and her husband, Frankie, came to the attention of Los Angeles police in November, 1990, after Debbie Freeman of West Los Angeles reported that she had paid $9,400 to support the Deeses and their year-old daughter in a Van Nuys apartment for six months.

Freeman, a 39-year-old single psychotherapist, said she took the couple shopping for food and clothing on Sundays and accompanied Leanne Dees on every doctor’s visit.

But a month before the baby was due, Freeman said, her hopes of adopting it dissolved when she discovered that the couple were allegedly negotiating with other couples for financial support in exchange for the child’s adoption.

When Freeman’s attorney called the Deeses to confront them, they vanished, Freeman said.

Police later discovered that Leanne Dees had given birth to a boy in December, 1990, in Las Vegas, while yet another couple expecting to adopt the child waited in the hospital. But Dees checked out of the hospital without giving that couple the child either, police said.

Authorities said that stories about Dees in newspapers and on the television programs “Hard Copy” and “Inside Edition” resulted in numerous calls to police from people who said that they, too, were defrauded by Dees.

The FBI later joined the investigation because Dees allegedly negotiated for money with 12 to 14 people in at least three states, all of whom believed they would adopt the child she was carrying.

If convicted on all 15 counts, Dees faces a maximum penalty of 75 years in federal prison and more than $3 million in fines.