Central Los Angeles : Surrogate Mother Loses Custody Fight

Ending an odd custody war that drew national attention, a surrogate mother from Cudahy on Friday was stripped of shared parental authority over her 5-year-old daughter when the judge ruled that the child would be safer and healthier in the care of her biological father in Orange County.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley awarded primary custody to the father, Robert Moschetta of Los Alamitos, ruling that the child is most attached to him and has suffered under a shared arrangement with surrogate mother Elvira Jordan. She was hired by Moschetta and his then-wife to give birth through artificial insemination.

The custody battle began five years ago when Moschetta and his wife divorced, and Jordan refused to give up her parental rights to the child she was paid $10,000 to bear.