2 Acquitted of Conspiring to Buy Babies : Courts: Social worker, lawyer allegedly teamed to offer pregnant women money for permitting adoption.

SANTA ANA —  A Superior Court jury on Tuesday found a Long Beach attorney and an Orange County welfare worker not guilty of conspiring to buy and sell babies for adoption.

Attorney Ira Aspiz, 37, and Youda Huor, 35, were each acquitted of one felony count of conspiracy. The charge carries a prison term of more than three years.

Prosecutors had charged that in 1989, when a pregnant woman came to the Orange County Social Services Agency for assistance, Huor steered her to Aspiz, who offered them money to put the baby up for adoption.

The district attorney’s office began an investigation after the woman complained to Huor’s supervisor. The pregnant woman was then used in an undercover capacity to secretly tape-record Huor and Aspiz in separate conversations. District attorney investigators followed up by posing as pregnant mothers, who made further undercover tape recordings of the defendants.

Defense lawyers argued that the offer was legal because it would only be repayment for legitimate expenses, as provided for by the statute covering private adoptions. No profit was involved, they said.

In 1990, a Municipal Court judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence. The district attorney’s office later refiled the case as a felony.

Jury foreman Robert D. Juncosa, 38, of Laguna Hills said the panel found there was not enough proof of an agreement by the defendants to violate the law.

“It was not easy for any of us,” Juncosa said. “There was a lot of emotion involved. . . . A lot of us have children, and a lot of us understand the heartache of adoption, whether you’re on the receiving or the giving-up side.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Clyde Patrick Von Der Ahe, who prosecuted the case, was on vacation and not present in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. The attorney standing in for him left the courtroom without commenting.

Huor also left the courtroom without commenting, but Aspiz said, “I think the truth came out in this case and I feel gratified that the jury deliberated carefully and came to this verdict.”