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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Prosecutors are investigating whether Melissa Rowland, the woman charged with killing one of her twins by refusing a Caesarean section, was trying to sell the babies to raise money to pay for her bail, The Deseret News has reported.
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Kent Morgan told the newspaper his office was reviewing such allegations.
"We have received information that (Rowland) is presently attempting to arrange bail by soliciting individuals to adopt a child who is alleged to be nonexistent," Morgan said.
Rowland, 28, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly ignoring repeated medical advice to undergo an emergency C-section to save the lives of her babies. One of her twins, which were eventually delivered by C-section Jan. 13, was stillborn. Prosecutors say the surviving baby girl tested positive for cocaine and alcohol, resulting in a child endangerment charge for Rowland.
Rowland exhibited "depraved indifference to human life," which eventually "caused the death of Baby Boy Rowland," according to charging documents in the case. One nurse told police that Rowland said a Caesarean would "ruin her life" and she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."
Rowland has denied in interviews that she was averse to the procedure, and said she had already undergone one in a previous pregnancy.
Her attorney, Michael Sikora, has said Rowland has a long history of mental illness.
The surviving child has been adopted, though Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom told The Associated Press on Sunday he did not know where the adopting party lived.
Yocom also said he had no knowledge of potential charges for baby selling, but that he had not been handling the case, so the reports could be true.
Efforts by the AP to reach Morgan Sunday afternoon were unsuccessful.
In a jailhouse interview Friday with The Associated Press, Rowland said without being prompted that she denied trying to sell the babies, but did not elaborate. She has been held on $250,000 bond since giving birth.
A Sacramento couple interested in adopting a child said Rowland offered to give them the child if they paid for her bail.
In a telephone interview Saturday, Brian Farley told the Deseret News that the California adoption agency he and his wife were using contacted them after talking with Rowland about giving up a boy for adoption.
Under the assumption that their adoption attorney had checked Rowland's background, Farley said, he and his wife agreed to accept collect telephone calls from the incarcerated woman. The calls began Feb. 26 and ended March 2, he said.
At the time of the last call, the couple believed Rowland had yet to deliver the baby boy, Farley said, though the stillborn child was actually born more than a month earlier.
Farley said he was expected to come up with $5,000 for bail. It was his understanding that Rowland was in jail for child endangerment charges at the time.
Morgan said he knows Rowland is the mother of three children, including the girl born Jan. 13. There is speculation Rowland has given birth to as many as six children. There is also evidence to suggest that Rowland sold at least one child through a "legitimate" adoption agency, Morgan has said.
Rowland and one of her children were the subject of a July 2000 Pennsylvania court case, in which she pleaded guilty to charges of simple assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for striking her then 2-year-old daughter in the face with her fist.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that Rowland punched the child while in the checkout line of a grocery story after the girl ate a candy bar she had not paid for.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
