Mother Accused of Trying to Drown Infants Evaluated
A 46-year-old San Clemente woman pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she tried to drown her 4-month-old twins in the bathtub and was transferred to UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital for evaluation.
Paula Thompson, charged with two counts of felony child endangerment, is due back in court Jan. 19, said Tori Richards of the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Following the plea, Orange County Superior Court Judge Pamela L. Iles transferred the 46-year-old San Clemente woman from the Orange County Jail to UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital for evaluation.
Iles said Thompson will be allowed two phone calls a week to her husband, John, and their 2 1/2-year-old son but cannot have any contact with the twins.
“I’m so sad all this has happened,” said John Thompson, who has custody of the twins, a boys and a girl, and of the toddler. “I love her so much. I just want her to get better.”
Police arrested Paula Thompson on Dec. 12 after her mother-in-law, who lives with the family, found her with the wet, crying, fully clothed infants in an upstairs bathroom. The children were not harmed, but Thompson allegedly told deputies she wanted to kill them.
Andrew Lloyd, Thompson’s lawyer, said the woman is suffering from a severe case of postpartum depression.
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