DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997             TAG: 9703260446

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   64 lines

LOUISIANA WOMAN CHARGED WITH SELLING BABY TO CHESAPEAKE PAIR

A 42-year-old Slidell, La., woman was arrested Tuesday on a charge of selling a baby to a Chesapeake family.

Bridgette Pitts is being held in jail on a $150,000 bond, according to Sgt. Terry Parta, of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Department. Pitts' 17-year-old daughter was taken into custody on the same charge and sent to a juvenile detention center.

The case against Pitts and her daughter revolves around a 1-year-old child who now lives with a Chesapeake family.

The brown-eyed, curly-haired girl was born on Jan. 7, 1996, to a Slidell 17-year-old named Melissa Lockwood. The teen-ager did not tell her parents about the pregnancy, and turned to the Pittses for help.

According to Lockwood, the Pittses took her to a hospital in Bay St. Louis, Miss., to have the baby. They admitted Lockwood into the hospital under the name of Bridgette Pitts, using the Pittses' medical insurance so hospital officials would not call her parents.

After the baby was born, Lockwood said Pitts told her to list the name of Bridgette Pitts as the birth mother on the birth certificate. She said that the elder Pitts first arranged for the baby to be adopted by a woman in Slidell. However, that woman returned the child a few days later.

Then Pitts, who ran an unlicensed adoption agency called ``Bright Beginnings,'' said she knew of a Chesapeake couple, Gary and Mary Prevette, who wanted to adopt a child.

Lockwood signed ``an act of surrender'' document, but signed as a witness rather than as the birth mother. The name of the birth mother was listed as Bridgette Pitts.

Gary Prevette flew to Louisiana to pick up the baby from Pitts and returned to Chesapeake with the child, according to Lockwood. The baby girl, who was originally named Brianna Angelique Pitts, is now a year old, has lived with the Prevette family since January 1996.

Five months after giving birth, Melissa Lockwood confided to her parents, Lisa and Mark Lockwood, that she had given birth to a baby.

The elder Lockwoods decided to try to get custody of the baby. Because the paperwork was fraudulent and their daughter was not properly informed of her rights, the baby should be returned to their family, the Lockwoods said.

In a January hearing, however, Judge Eileen Olds of the Chesapeake Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court granted legal custody of the child to the Prevettes, and gave the Lockwoods visitation rights.

The Lockwoods plan to appeal that decision. The Prevettes cannot proceed with adoption since they do not have consent of the birth parents.

Lisa Lockwood said she was pleased that Bridgette Pitts had been arrested. ``I'm glad something is finally happening,'' said Lisa Lockwood on Tuesday. ``Her walls might finally be tumbling down. She needed to be stopped.''

The Lockwoods have a copy of a Bright Beginnings bill, signed by the Prevettes, for $7,399, for ``baby girl Pitts born on 7 January, 1996.'' The bill is broken down into expenses such as counseling fees, mother's clothing, phone calls and medical costs.

The Louisiana sheriff's department alleges the amount of money that was exchanged was $1,750.

Parta said the charge of selling a baby in Louisiana carries a sentence of not more than five years, a $5,000 fine, or both. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Bridgette Pitts and her 17-year-old daughter were taken into custody

Tuesday in St. Tammany Parish, La. KEYWORDS: ARREST

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