NEWBURY PARK : Porn Actress to Be Tried in Molestation

After listening to a 14-year-old boy testify about two sexual encounters, a Municipal Court judge ordered a 45-year-old adult-film actress from Newbury Park to stand trial on six counts of child molestation.

Laurie Arden, who has appeared in sexually explicit films and magazines, listened quietly in the county courtroom as the boy testified that he initially had sex with the woman in mid-April out of curiosity.

A week after the encounter, the two again had sex after Arden threatened to report the boy to the police, he testified.

Municipal Judge James P. Cloninger ordered Arden to stand trial on two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, two counts of sexual conduct using a foreign object, one count of showing explicit photos to a minor and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor.

The boy said Arden contacted him through a youth employment service in March to help her move out of a rented room on White Oak Lane. A month later, as he was doing more work for Arden, she showed him nude photos of herself and other overweight women on a computer screen and in the pages of a magazine.

“I told her my mom didn’t let me look at these sort of things,” the boy testified. But the youth said he agreed to have sex with the woman because he was “curious and confused.”

A week later, he said they had sex again after she threatened to report him to police. Police have said they began investigating the case in May, after the boy’s mother became suspicious when Arden called asking for her son. The mother was in the courtroom Friday.

Arden’s arraignment was set for Sept. 2. She is being held in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.