Woman accused of trying to sell her child for bail
2-year-old son offered for $250, charges allege
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By Sheridan Lyons
Sun Staff
Originally published December 4, 2002


A 19-year-old woman being held at the Carroll County Detention Center was charged yesterday with trying to sell her 2-year-old son for $250 so she could get out of jail to await trial on a drug charge, police said.

Judith Ann Garland of Baltimore was charged after a two-month investigation that began when the Harford County woman to whom the child was offered for sale called authorities, said Maryland State Police Sgt. James DeWees.

The woman is a cousin of the boy's father, who also is in jail, and has temporary custody of the child, said DeWees, a member of the Carroll County Child Abuse and Sexual Assault unit.

"The complainant knew it was illegal from the first conversation and called the police," DeWees said. She worked with police, and charges were filed after several contacts culminated in a written and mailed makeshift contract "to solidify the deal [and] to relinquish ... parental rights for $250," he said.

DeWees said it was fortunate that the Harford County woman did not ignore the alleged solicitation.

"If this person didn't want to purchase the child, who would she have gone to next?" DeWees said.

Garland is charged with selling, bartering or trading a child, or offering to do so, a misdemeanor that is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a $10,000 fine, he said.

Child protective service workers have been notified, although the child was not in danger, he said.

Garland has been held in lieu of $5,000 bail at the Carroll County Detention Center since Oct. 3 to await trial on crack cocaine possession charges, according to District Court files. Court records show that her mother wrote three times to judges saying her daughter is a drug addict who needs to be put into a treatment program and needs medication for a bipolar condition.

Garland has a trial date Jan. 15, according to the District Court file on the original charges of possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of paraphernalia.

She was arrested at the Carroll County General Hospital emergency room parking lot in Westminster after a call about a disorderly individual.

A trooper said Garland was arguing with her mother and, after he asked whether she had a weapon, she pulled a glass crack pipe from her purse, according to a statement of charges in the drug case. Garland had two pipes that appeared to contain cocaine residue, and he arrested her, according to the charging document.

Since then, her mother, Mary Ann Harding of Westminster, has filled out three motion forms at the District Court - pleading that her daughter be placed in a mental hospital or in a local drug treatment program, and saying she suffers from depression. One judge said twice that Garland's attorney must file such motions. A second judge wrote to the jail last month, enclosing a letter from Garland's mother about the medication "for any action that you deem appropriate."

In a letter dated Oct. 11, Harding wrote again about trying to arrange for an addiction program, saying, "No one (Thank God) has posted bail so I feel I have a chance to save my daughter ... ." She said in that letter that she was keeping one of her daughter's two children, who were under the city social services' supervision.

In a plea dated Nov. 1, Harding wrote, "Judy came to me for help after 6 yrs ... the only way she has any rights to her children, and can start a productive life if she's given the chance."