"It wasn't me."
"It wasn't my fault."
"I didn't stop them."
"I didn't know what I was getting into."
We have heard all of these quotes from the players involved in the "Baby Selling Case."
Recently, there have been many posts around the web on how to protect yourself and make sure that you are doing a safe and legal surrogacy. They writers make the assumption that the people involved in the Baby Selling Scandal didn't see the red flags. They weren't aware of the laws and they were taking advantage of and are indeed "victims."
None of the adults involved were victims.
Certainly in the present case it cannot seriously be argued that the surrogates lacked the intellectual wherewithal or life experience necessary to make an informed decision to enter into the surrogacy agreement.
In fact, the surrogates all had issues that removed them from the ability to be approved as qualified surrogates in the USA that could be compensated. They were either to old, had health issues, or lived in a State or Country the makes Compensation illegal.
They were part of the surrogacy community and understood that a woman who enters into a gestational surrogacy arrangement is not exercising her own right to make procreative choices; she is agreeing to provide a necessary and profoundly important service for Intended Parents. That are specified and known before the transfer.
They went around and sold their services to the highest bidder. Accepting the payment of money for the gestation and relinquishment of a child (baby selling) by the economic exploitation of the future adoptive parents. Whomever, they might end up being.
All the time the surrogates knew what they were doing was wrong and publicly lied about their surrogacy journey. They thought they would be protected by the lawyers and get away with their part of the scheme.
The adoptive parents were no better.
They used their pocket book to jump to the head of the line and purchase a baby. They saw the easy way to become parents through the adoption process and took advantage of the situation.
Not a single adoptive parent made a victims statement to the court at the sentencing of Theresa Erickson or Carla Chambers.
In fact, the majority of the parents have refused to talk to the FBI at all.
They have already been rewarded with their parental rights and should be happy they are also not facing jail time for their participation in buying the babies.
It's impossible to have baby sellers without baby buyers. They were all sailing together on the same boat.
Yesterday in a news interview Theresa Erickson says "I didn't stop them" without explaining who "They" are - and implies that she to is a victim of others bad behavior. She doesn't agree that she should be called the leader and King pin of the conspiracy.
Without her involvement no one else gets to play the baby selling game. She is the only one that could file the documents in the California courts and get the PBO's approved. Without her leading the group no one else gets to play.
That is why she got the longest sentence of everyone involved and will be paying the most restitution.
The courts are asking restitution from all three women:
Carla Chambers $189,773
Hilary Neiman $189,773
Theresa Erickson $801,414
No one that was involved with this scheme missed the red flags and got hoodwinked. Everyone had their own selfish reason to look past the red flags and happily jumping on board to become co-conspirator.
None of the adults involved are innocent.
None of the adults involved are victims.
In the end we are left with this all telling quote from Theresa Erickson:
"Remember, any story can be spun and manipulated......"
This is what all of the adults are doing.
They are pointing the finger at the other person and saying "it wasn't me!"
"It really, it wasn't me!"
"It was them! They are the bad one's!"
"I am the victim."
"Now give me $38,000 for my involvement in the crime! I earned it!"
When you look at the facts, it should be clear that all of the co-conspirators should have been treated equally. Surrogates, Parents, Lawyers, and Facilitators are all equally parts to the puzzle.
At the sentencing, The Honorable Anthony J. Battaglia said "When you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound." He needs to apply his own words to this case and not award the Surrogates or Intended parents any restitution.
Reporting from San Diego -- Poway attorney Theresa Erickson was a star in the complex, competitive, and sometimes lucrative business of helping childless couples adopt babies.
She was a frequent guest on national TV shows; she self-published a book on "assisted reproduction," and she presented herself on her website as a tireless, fearless advocate for adoption. Eager to expand her business, she was looking to attract gay clients.
A different Erickson will appear for sentencing Friday in San Diego federal court: an admitted felon, the alleged ringleader behind an international scheme to pay surrogates to carry embryos to term so the babies could be placed with couples throughout the United States.
The scheme violated laws requiring a prior agreement between a surrogate and what the law calls "intended parents" before implantation, according to prosecutors. The rules are meant to prevent the creation of an inventory of babies to be "shopped."
In August, Erickson, 45, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, knowing she could be sentenced to five years in prison. Two co-defendants also pleaded guilty.
As part of her plea bargain, Erickson signed court documents saying the surrogates were paid $38,000 to $45,000, and the couples were sometimes charged more than $100,000. In the same documents, Erickson admits that she filed phony birth certificates and health insurance forms. Prosecutors accuse her of building "an efficient business model that kept costs to a minimum."
It seemed as if the case had been concluded without undue rancor: In exchange for a guilty plea, prosecutors would recommend home detention instead of prison, although that decision is left to the judge.
But as sentencing has approached, Erickson's attorney has launched an attack on the U.S. attorney, the federal probation office, and the local media, starting with the prosecutors' characterization of the case as "baby-selling" rather than wire fraud.
The result of the prosecutor's actions, attorney Ezekiel Cortez said in a document filed with the federal court, has been to produce a "mob mentality" that could lead U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia to sentence his client more harshly than was imagined when Erickson signed her plea agreement.
Based on interviews with prosecutors, the local media produced "an onslaught of negative and misinformed media coverage" that puts Erickson at "an unfair disadvantage" at sentencing, according to the same document.
Cortez declined to comment, which an aide said is consistent with his policy of never talking to reporters. The federal prosecutors also declined.
But in pre-sentencing documents, prosecutors said Erickson has shown no remorse, tried to shift blame to her co-defendants, and continued to insist that she was only trying to help desperate couples start families.
Within hours of signing a plea agreement on Aug. 9, Erickson posted a "defiant statement on Facebook that contradicted her guilty plea made under oath," prosecutors said.
"I have never taken advantage of parents, children, donors or surrogates who otherwise would remain vulnerable to the underbelly of this industry," the statement read. "I live my life by doing the right things for the right reasons and sometimes you just have to do what is right."
Prosecutors have not sought to nullify any of the adoptions nor to charge surrogates with knowingly participating in the scheme.
Erickson's attorney wrote that the surrogates "who mysteriously escaped prosecution … also profited from their integral, key role in this conspiracy."
At the same court session Friday, one of Erickson's co-defendants, Carla Chambers, 52, of Las Vegas, is also set to be sentenced.
Chambers, who was convicted of a similar surrogacy scheme in New Zealand, has admitted that she sought out young women willing to go to Ukraine to have an embryo implanted and then return to California to give birth. She pleaded guilty to receiving money from an illegal act.
Prosecutors say Chambers and Erickson began their business arrangement in 2005. Court documents mention a dozen adoptive couples nationwide. Many were told by Erickson that another couple had agreed to adopt the child but had backed out, making the child available to them.
In 2008, a second attorney was recruited by Erickson to find clients. Maryland resident Hilary Neiman, 32, also pleaded guilty to wire fraud and in December was sentenced to five months in prison and seven months of home confinement.
Neiman surrendered her law license after the Maryland bar opened an investigation that could have led to her license being revoked, according to her attorney.
Documents show that the same could happen in California to Erickson, who once gave courses in creating a "niche" legal practice and advertised herself as an expert in "an area of law where it matters most."
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