Paula Poundstone's Plea Deal Ends Child Abuse Case
Court: Comedian pleads no contest to charges and is expected to get five years' probation. Charges she commited lewd acts are dropped.
Entertainer Paula Poundstone, an adoptive and foster parent who has been a fixture on the stand-up comedy scene for 20 years, pleaded no contest Wednesday to one count of felony child abuse and a misdemeanor charge of inflicting injury upon a child. As part of a plea agreement with Los Angeles County prosecutors, Poundstone is expected to be placed on probation for five years but will not go to jail, attorneys said.
Poundstone, 41, changed her earlier plea of not guilty before Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins at the Santa Monica courthouse. In exchange, prosecutors dropped three counts of committing lewd acts against a child and added the misdemeanor count.
Had Poundstone been convicted of the original charges, she could have received 13 years and four months in state prison, authorities said.
Poundstone was arrested in June for alleged lewd acts and child abuse involving her three adoptive and two foster children.
In court documents, prosecutors alleged that she committed a lewd act on a girl under 14, and that she endangered the four other children--two girls and two boys. The crimes were committed between May 19 and June 6, they alleged.
Paula Poundstone's Plea Deal Ends Child Abuse Case - latimes