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Eappens oppose au pair's request for going public

Lawyers for the family of Matthew Eappen have filed an opposition to a request from former British au pair Louise Woodward in which she asked permission to sell her story.

Attorneys for Drs Sunil and Deborah Eappen filed on the motion in federal court on Wednesday, opposing the request filed Monday by Woodward, who was convicted last year of killing eight-month-old Matthew.

In it, she asked that an injunction be set aside requiring her to notify an American judge before making any deals to sell her story and prohibiting her from spending any money received from doing so.

The Eappens also opposed Woodward's request to have a default -- ordered when she failed to respond to the Eappens' civil suit in June -- removed against her, said Eappen attorney Frederic Ellis.

An attorney for Woodward filed the motion on her behalf on Monday, just hours after the Eappens asked US district judge William Young to order her to pay them millions for the loss of their son.

Because Woodward failed to respond to the Eappen's suit last June, the Newton couple automatically won the civil case, leaving it up to Young to decide if she must pay anything.

A jury convicted Woodward, now 20, of second-degree murder in Matthew's death. The trial judge then reduced the verdict to manslaughter, and sentenced her to the 279 days she had served since her February 1997 arrest. She was allowed to return home to England in June.

UNI

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