Gag order sought by women accused in cut-from-womb case

CHICAGO – Attorneys representing two Chicago women charged in the death of a mother and a child cut from her womb are asking for a gag order.

The Cook County Public Defender’s Office made the request during a status hearing Thursday. Judge Peggy Chiampis says she will rule after hearing arguments from both sides.

Forty-six-year-old Clarisa Figueroa and her daughter, 26-year-old Desiree, are accused of luring 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez to Clarisa Figueroa’s home by offering to give her baby clothes, then strangling her and cutting the baby from her womb. Clarisa Figueroa then went to a hospital with the brain-damaged newborn, claiming the baby boy as her own. The baby died weeks later.

Attorneys for Ochoa-Lopez’s husband say the lawyers representing the Figueroa women are attempting to silence Ochoa-Lopez’s family.