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| FILE - In this May 19, 2010 this file photo, Nadya Suleman stands outside her home in La Habra, Calif. Los Angeles County prosecutors said Monday, Jan. 13, 2014, they have charged Suleman with welfare fraud. The district attorney's office said on Monday that Suleman failed to report nearly $30,000 in earnings while applying for public assistance last year. Suleman gained fame when she gave birth to octuplets in 2009. |
LOS ANGELES
(AP) -- "Octomom" Nadya Suleman did porn films, boxed D-list
celebrities, even endorsed birth control for dogs after giving birth in
2009 to eight babies after she received in vitro fertility treatments.
Through it all, she never ran afoul of the law. At least until now.
On
Monday, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office announced
Suleman has been charged with three counts of welfare fraud.
Authorities
say the 38-year-old single mother of 14 children failed to report
$30,000 she earned while collecting public assistance money.
Suleman,
who was charged Jan. 6, was not immediately taken into custody but was
ordered to appear in court on Friday. Prosecutors planned to ask that
bail be set at $25,000.
If convicted, she could be sentenced to nearly six years in prison.
"While
applying for public aid, the mother of 14 children allegedly failed to
disclose that she was also getting checks for personal appearances and
residuals from videos," the district attorney's office said in a
statement.
Authorities didn't say what the
personal appearances or videos involved, but it's no secret Suleman has
made at least one porn video, posed topless for various publications,
danced in a Florida strip club and taken part in so-called celebrity
boxing matches as she's struggled to support her children.
One
of her boxing opponents was Amy Fischer, the former "Long Island
Lolita" who was 17 when she shot her much older lover's wife in the face
in 1992.
Suleman, whose real name is Natalie
Denise Suleman, could not be located for comment Monday. There was no
phone listing for the Orange County home where she has recently been
living.
Lawyers, publicists and others who
have worked with her over the years either did not respond to requests
for comment or simply refused to talk about her.
All of Suleman's children have been born by in vitro fertility treatments. She's never named a father of any of the babies.
She's
also been careful about shielding them from media attention, but
occasional video and print articles seem to indicate they are growing up
healthy, even though the octuplets were born nine weeks premature.
Her older children range in age from 7 to 12.
After
the octuplets were born on Jan. 26, 2009, it was discovered that her
physician, Dr. Michael Kamrava, had implanted 12 embryos in her womb.
The
medical community reacted with outrage, saying he grossly violated
professional standards, and the state Medical Board revoked his license.
Initial
offers to help quickly dried up as outrage spread about the births and
knowledge that Suleman was unemployed and had been collecting welfare
before the children were born.
In 2010 she
defaulted on a house she had bought with a $115,000 down payment and it
was sold at auction. She moved to a rental house in the Los Angeles
suburb of Palmdale but left last year, soon after checking into a
rehabilitation center.
At one point child
welfare officials investigated allegations that she wasn't properly
caring for the children. No charges were ever brought.
Family
law attorney Steve Mindel said Monday that unless Suleman goes to jail
for a long time, it's unlikely county officials would try to take her
children now.
"If there was a dad or somebody
trying to take custody, then that could be somewhat important to the
court," he said. "But even in that case, courts don't like to punish
children for the acts of their parents."
