This Tuesday, March 11, 2014, file photo shows Nadya Suleman, a single mother of octuplets and six other children, known as “Octomom,” appearing for arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court.LOS ANGELES – “Octomom” Nadya Suleman pleaded no contest Monday to a single count of misdemeanor welfare fraud for failing to disclose income she was receiving from videos and personal appearances while collecting more than $26,000 in public assistance funds to care for her 14 children.
Suleman was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and two years of probation, and ordered to pay a small fine. Her attorney, Arthur J. LaCilento, said that with financial help from friends, his client has already repaid the county welfare system.
“We could have litigated, there were a lot of issues we could have raised,” LaCilento said of the possibility of taking the case to trial. “But she wanted to resolve this case quickly and not go through a public ordeal.”
Suleman became famous in 2009 by giving birth to eight children who quickly became the world’s longest-surviving octuplets. Like their six older siblings, the octuplets were conceived by in-vitro fertilization. Suleman has never revealed their father’s identity.
She struggled to support them, resorting to earning money by doing a porn video, posing topless for different publications, dancing in a strip club and taking part in boxing matches with D-list celebrities.