Gina M. Ocon '98 seemed to have it all. She was involved in crew, she had just been accepted into the interdisciplinary social studies concentration and she was known by Thayer hallmates as "fun" and "cool."

Then she got pregnant.

Ocon left school last November to give birth to her daughter, Bailey, in her hometown of Lakewood, Calif. Now she wants to come back, but her ex-boyfriend and the baby's father, Tommaso Maggiore, is trying to stop her.

Maggiore claims that a Harvard education would force Ocon to "warehouse" their baby daughter in day care, according to an article on the front page of Sunday's Los Angeles Times.

Maggiore is seeking a custody-sharing arrangement which would force mother and daughter to remain in Southern California, the paper said.

The issue will be decided May 6 by Long Beach, Calif. family law commissioner John Chemeleski, the article said.

Maggiore refused to comment until after the court date.

"We would not like to make any comments until this gets resolved in a professional way," he told The Crimson yesterday.

One of Ocon's former Eliot house roommates, Ana M. Balcarcel '98, said that the custody battle comes as a great surprise.

"I knew she was having some problems, but I didn't know any specifics," she said.

Ocon lived with Balcarcel, Pia A. Menezes '98 and Jane A. Rubio '98 in Eliot House until she left for home in November. Balcarcel has fond memories of their first year, when she would hang out with Menezes and Ocon, who lived across the hall in Thayer 201.

"She was very spontaneous, a very fun person, very laid back. She was very cool," Balcarcel said.

The Times said that this fun-loving nature led Ocon to take up with the "handsome" Maggiore in the summer of 1995, despite her mother's disapproval.

Maggiore is a 21-year-old waiter who works in his parents' Long Beach restaurant, Andiamo. Balcarcel said that Ocon and Maggiore had been friends for years.

Ocon told her roommates that she was pregnant during October of her sophomore year. Balcarcel said that Ocon's Catholic upbringing meant she didn't consider abortion as a possible option.