October 27, 2026
FROM STEUBEN COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY BROOKS BAKER: “Yesterday Mary Beth Lewis appeared with her Attorney, Rhian Jones and I entered Police of guilty to three counts of attempted offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree each class a misdemeanor. A pre-plea report had been done in case she has no prior history, and as part of that a mental health evaluation was also done indicating she did not suffer from any diagnosed illness, requiring treatment. Under the circumstances, the court imposed a sentence on each of the offenses as a conditional discharge requiring her to obey the law to stay in New York, not to be re-arrested and to pay her surcharges as well as to submit to a DNA sample for the DNA data bank in a timely fashion. The conditional discharge last for a period of one year and that closed the proceedings. The courtroom was full.”
BACKGROUND: This is a Steuben County Court case that’s gotten national media attention from the New York Times and People Magazine. It’s about a woman from the Erie County Town of Elma, who made news in a surrogacy case here in Steuben County. Her name is Mary Beth Lewis and the story goes that Mary Beth Lewis had a surrogacy couple have twins for her, and then both she and the surrogacy parents wanted to keep the twins and there has been courtroom cases about that since December of 2023.
