Comedian Paula Poundstone Arrested

Stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone was arrested and jailed Wednesday in Santa Monica on charges of committing three lewd acts against a child and child endangerment.

Poundstone, an adoptive parent who is also known for her work as a foster parent, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Malibu by Santa Monica police, said Joe Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Police said that the alleged lewd acts involved a girl under the age of 14 and that the child endangerment counts involved two other girls and two boys. If convicted, Poundstone faces up to 13 years and 4 months in state prison.

Looking haggard and wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, Poundstone emerged from Santa Monica jail at 7:30 p.m. with her lawyer Steve Cron after posting $200,000 bail. Outside the jail, her lawyer said: “She is adamant she’s not guilty of these charges.”

Showing a taut smile, Poundstone said she has “faith the truth” will come out.

Cron said Poundstone had been cooperating with investigators. An arraignment date has not been set.

Authorities declined to reveal any other details about the charges except to say that Poundstone allegedly committed a lewd act against the girl on May 19. They said she committed the child endangerment and additional lewd acts on June 6.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Poundstone’s personal manager said the allegations were untrue.

“I know Paula Poundstone well enough to know these charges are 100% incorrect,” said Bonnie Burns, the comedian’s personal manager.

“She has been an incredible parent,” she added. “She’s made huge sacrifices to see that children who weren’t dealt the best cards in life were well taken care of, and she’s always shown herself to be completely honorable and full of integrity.

Jim Brogan, a comic and former head monologue writer for “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” where Poundstone has been a regular guest, said Poundstone couldn’t be more patient with children.

“There are comedians who certainly have a dark side, but I would never [think] . . it of her,” said Brogan, who has known Poundstone for 15 years.

Santa Monica neighbors spoke warmly of Poundstone, who sometimes threw pingpong parties for local children and adults and was a fixture at meetings of foster parents.

On Wednesday, about a dozen girls in their preteens and early teens, and some adults, wore shirts Poundstone had given out at a party last November for one of her adopted boys.

The shirts read “Celebrating the coming true of one wild thing wish”--an apparent reference to her recent adoption of a child.

“She’s done everything in the world for her kids,” said Karen Davidson, a fellow adoptive parent. “She doesn’t care if all her kids are of different colors, of if they’re handicapped. She loves them all.”

Mark Wildung, a neighbor of Poundstone, said he was struck by how much attention Poundstone gave to her children and foster children at neighborhood parties.

“I think these allegations are totally false,” he said.

Poundstone has one foster child and four adoptive children, said Anita Bock, head of the Los Angeles County Child Welfare Agency. She said all five children have been taken into the agency’s care.

It was unclear on Wednesday how long Poundstone has been a foster parent or how many children have been placed in her care.

She did not work directly for the county, instead being assigned children by the Westside Children’s Center, one of more than 100 foster family agencies in Los Angeles licensed by the state to care for foster children.

The county contracts with the agencies to serve some of the most difficult children in the system. Poundstone has been a fixture on the stand-up comedy scene since the early 1980s. More recently, she has been a regular panelist on the syndicated TV game show revival “To Tell the Truth.”

Pearson Television, which produces the show, had no comment on what impact the Poundstone case might have on the show.

Similarly, a spokesman for KCET said no programming decisions had been made about Poundstone’s appearances on “Storytime,” a children’s program on the public television station.

Poundstone was born in Alabama but grew up in Sudbury, Mass. She came of age as a comic performing in the vibrant Boston club scene. Her clean, observational humor earned her mainstream success, including HBO specials and a brief ABC-TV variety series in 1993.

In 1999, Poundstone was the subject of a Times profile about her work as a foster parent through the Westside Children’s Center.

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Times staff writers Evelyn Larrubia, Hector Becerra, Bob Pool and Dana Calvo contributed to this story.