PA. KIDNAPPING Girl's case draws fire officials, screenwriter

The case will become the subject of a movie.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The two note-takers sat within feet of each other, recording the testimony about a curious fire and an infant girl who was kidnapped and raised in another family.
The screenwriter took notes for a planned movie about Delimar Vera, who is now 6 and was reunited with birth mother Luzaida Cuevas in March. Nearby, a city fire official took notes for a much different reason.
Anthony Cianfrani, an attorney for Cuevas, said he thought it was likely the fire official took notes because Cianfrani would soon file a civil suit against the city. Officials in 1997 said that 10-day-old Delimar was killed and her body incinerated in a house fire that was ruled an accident but that prosecutors now say was deliberately set.
Ordered to stand trial
Carolyn Correa, 42, of Willingboro, N.J., was ordered Friday to stand trial on more than a dozen charges including kidnapping, arson and criminal conspiracy. Correa had raised Delimar -- under a different name -- until last month.
Cianfrani said he had spoken only once about a civil suit against the city, and that the mother was "certainly not looking" to file a big-dollar lawsuit. But, he said, "I think I have to consider that."
"Her priorities have been to get the kid back," Cianfrani said. "After that she wants a conviction, sure. The movie stuff was just gravy. That was dropped in her lap."
In March, Delimar's parents reached a six-figure book and movie deal with a California production company. They had serious offers from about two dozen producers.
The screenwriter penning Delimar's story scratched out notes in court as details spilled out for the first time: Cuevas testified how she met Correa for the first time the day before the Dec. 15, 1997, fire and kidnapping. And prosecutors demonstrated that Correa told several conflicting stories about how she supposedly delivered a baby around the time Delimar was born, though medical records from a few days before indicate she wasn't pregnant.
Screenwriter's comments
Screenwriter Chris Canaan said there were so many good angles he still didn't know where he'd focus his story line. "I think it's a riveting story," he said.
The details of Delimar's disappearance are still far from clear. Prosecutors say Correa did not physically kidnap Delimar -- Correa was talking to Cuevas during a 10-minute period when the kidnapping may have taken place -- but the state hasn't yet been able to identify the kidnapper.
Another issue: While prosecutors say the fire was deliberately set, a deputy fire marshal who is now retired ruled the fire started because of a faulty extension cord that had been spliced together.
Delimar's father, Pedro Vera, testified Friday that the cord hadn't been spliced together.
Lt. Ronald Pelszynski, an assistant fire marshal, also testified Friday. He said that from the available file photos of the house's charred remains that he could neither determine nor rule out that the fire was purposely set. Pelszynski said there was no photo showing the reported faulty wire, but that didn't mean that there wasn't one.
Cianfrani said that he and Vera's attorney, Michael Luber, would likely file the civil suit against the city jointly. Luber jumped in front television news cameras Friday to answer for Vera when he was asked why it took so long for the birth father and mother -- who both said they suspected for years that Correa had taken their child -- to find her and get her back.
The parents, Luber said, are not the guilty ones. It was the city, he said, for ruling that their child had died when she in fact was alive.
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