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American Morning

Paula Poundstone Appears in Court

Aired July 30, 2001 - 11:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Stand-up comedienne Paula Poundstone is making a court appearance this hour. She's fighting charges that she committed lewd acts against a child in her care.

CNN's Sherri Sylvester joins us now. She's outside the courthouse in Santa Monica, California this morning -- Sherri.

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, we do expect Paula Poundstone to arrive within about the next 15 minutes or so. That hearing is set for about 8:30 Pacific Time. We don't expect her to address the press that is gathered here on the lawn outside the courthouse, but her attorney has said that he may make a brief statement.

We see a few supporters are back behind me, not the kind of signage that we saw last time at Poundstone's arraignment. There are a few people gathered here this morning. We do expect the court proceedings to be very brief. They are setting a date for a preliminary hearing for Poundstone -- a little bit of paperwork, some administrative work. So we don't expect this to go on too long today. Again, Paula Poundstone is arriving from an alcohol abuse treatment facility. That is a live in residential facility and she did check in June 11.

Now, if I can back up, I'll give you a little bit of a time line here. The alleged incidents involving these children in Poundstone's care took place May 13 and again on June 6. The children were removed from her home, the children that were living with her, her three adopted children and two foster children were removed from her home and taken into custody, protective custody, shortly after that week.

Within five days, by June 11, Poundstone had checked into this alcohol clinic, this facility, and she was in that facility when she was arrested on June 27.

Now, her attorney did issue a statement at that time and said that he believes that her alcohol abuse led to some of these charges being brought against her, but he said he does believe that she will be cleared of the charges. Again, Paula Poundstone could receive up to 13 years and four months in prison if convicted on the charges. She pleaded not guilty on July 3 -- those charges: three felony counts of committing a lewd act against a child, a girl under the age of 14, and child endangerment charges involving four other children, two Jane Does and two John Does. There has been a bit of an information vacuum around this case. The judge has sealed all of the documents involved in this case. We're not sure that we're going to have a camera allowed in the courtroom this morning. That is all out of concern for these minors involved. They want to protect their identities and they are being very, very tight-lipped regarding this case, so information has been very slow to get to us.

I will go up to the courtroom. I will be allowed in. I've got a seat in there. I'll find out what's going on and we will come back and report to you as soon as we get any new information.

I'm Sherri Sylvester reporting live from the courthouse in Santa Monica -- Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. We'll check back with you then, Sherri. Appreciate that.

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