Prosecutor: N.M. Woman Scouted Hospital

By BETSY BLANEY

LUBBOCK, Texas – The woman accused of snatching a days-old infant from a hospital had scouted security measures there beforehand and also went to another maternity ward the day the baby was abducted, a prosecutor said Friday.

Rayshaun Parson, 21, faces charges of kidnapping after authorities said she took Mychael Darthard-Dawodu from Covenant Lakeside Hospital in Lubbock on March 10. She was ordered to remain in jail Friday during a detention hearing where prosecutors also provided more details about the case.

Parson came to Lubbock from Clovis, N.M., on March 9 and spent time in the maternity ward at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Sucsy told a judge. But the security system at that hospital, a tag attached to newborns’ umbilical clip, discouraged her, Sucsy said.

Greg Bruce, a spokesman for the medical center, said had Parson tried to remove an umbilical tag from a baby there, it could cause a baby to bleed and would be “extremely difficult to remove” and “would cause the baby extreme discomfort.”

Parson instead went about to Covenant Lakeside, and spent a few hours there, Sucsy said. She purchased infant formula then “popped in and out” of Mychael’s mother’s room, the baby’s mother told investigators.

The baby’s mother told investigators that Parson took the baby, explaining she needed her for medical tests. When Parson realized the infant did not have an umbilical clip security tag, she cut off the infant’s security leg bracelet and left the hospital, Sucsy said.

Gwen Stafford, a Covenant vice president, has said the hospital was alerted when the baby was separated from the security tag, but hasn’t explained how the security system failed. The hospital has pledged to improve security.

Hospital surveillance footage showed a woman wearing blue and flower-print hospital scrubs walking out of the hospital around 1:20 a.m. March 10. She was carrying a purse as she walked past an unstaffed information desk near the exit.

Parson did not comment when leaving the court, but made an obscene gesture to media members. Helen Liggett, the public defender who is representing her, declined to comment after the hearing but said she will appeal the ruling.

The judge ordered Parson held without bond Friday, denying a request to allow her to stay in a psychiatric treatment facility in California near her mother and grandparents.