Louise Woodward

[wiseguy182]

This was en episode of Notorious (American Justice) and I gotta say, I was disgusted by the way this turned out.

This was about an 18 year old British nanny (Woodward) who sought employment in the United States for a year. She would work in exchange for room and board. By all accounts, Woodward viewed her visit to the U.S. as an adventure, and not a working experience. She took a job in Massachusetts, but did not like the 11 p.m. curfew, so she changed jobs and headed to Newton, Massachussets (Barney Frank's place of residence). She had an active night life and stayed out late, which caused her to have trouble waking up in the morning to tend to the children. The wife in the home, Mrs. Eappan, said to her mother that Woodward was "more of a burden than a help" and "it was like having to raise a teenager as well as having young children."

The Eappan's got tired of this and had a meeting with Woodward in late January 1997, and informed her that she would have to abide by a midnight curfew or she would be terminated. Woodward was decidedly not pleased with this. A few days later, the Eappan's youngest child, 8 month old Matthew Epan suffered extensive and severe injuries while in Woodward's care and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors examining him believed he had been shaken violently and slammed against a hard surface. Woodward admitted to dropping the baby and being a little rough with him, and being angry with the baby. Matthew's condition worsened and his parents decided to take him off life support.

Woodward was arrested and spent about 9 months in jail and went on trial. She smiled and laughed numerous times throughout her questioning. The Judge, Hiller Zobel, made facial expressions throughout the trial that indicated that he sided with the defense. In an effort to get their client off the hook, the defense asked that the jury not be allowed to convict her of manslaughter, but either murder or nothing, and of course corrupt Judge Zobel agreed to that. The jury returned a guilty verdict anyway, and Zobel was reportedly shocked by the verdict when it was read. Zobel then made the extremely rare decision of throwing out the jury's verdict and reducing Woodward's sentence to "time served" and she was freed. She promptly went back home to Britain, where she has lived ever since.

But if that wasn't disgusting enough, The Eappens, particularly Mrs. Eappen, received loads of hate mail and such from people who thought they were responsible for Matthew's death, and that Mrs. Eappen shouldn't have worked and stayed home and took care of her children. 2 doctors in California filmed a news segment for CBS news that suggested that the Eappens were the ones that abused Matthew. Many people protested CBS news for airing the segment, but CBS did not give an apology when asked for one.

One of the prosecutors for this case was current Massachusetts Attorney General and 2009 U.S. Senate candidate Martha Coakley, who lost to now Senator Scott Brown.

In any event, Woodward is lucky that her trial was in Massachusetts and not Texas. Otherwise, she would probably be on death row right about now.

[welshman]

Why do you say the judge was corrupt?

[wiseguy182]

Originally Posted by welshman

Why do you say the judge was corrupt?

Because he sided with the defense at every turn. He had a pre-conceived notion she was innocent even before the trial began and did everything in his power to help her. He was known as a "maverick" who made unconventional decisions. He was stunned by the verdict and his behavior after it was read was described as unprofessional. What was the point of even having the trial if he was just going to throw out the verdict anyways? And you should have seen how he evaded reporters. He didn't even have the courage to release his decision in the courtrooom, he did it online because he knew it was wrong and would be unpopular.

I should point out that the child had at least one injury that was several weeks old (a wrist fracture). Some believed that his skull fracture was several weeks old. I find it suspicious that the child was receiving injuries right around the time Louise came to be employed there.

Nope, the "caretaker" didn't care a whit about those children. She viewed them as an obstacle of going out on the big city and living the high life. She was disappointed she had to work for a living. She had quit her first job because of an 11 p.m. curfew and it was in a desolate, rural area and away from Boston where she could live the nightlife.

I see now she has a child. Hopefully she has more patience this time.