Au Pair Is Denied a California Visit

British au pair Louise Woodward will spend Christmas in the Boston area after a judge denied her request to travel to California. Judge Hiller B. Zobel, who reduced charges against the 19-year-old to manslaughter from second-degree murder, said he saw no reason to allow her to spend 12 days in California. Woodward, convicted in October by a jury for the death of 9-month-old Matthew Eappen, has been staying with her lawyer, Elaine Whitfield-Sharp, whose mother and sister are in California. Woodward is under a court order forcing her to stay in Massachusetts while the state appeals her reduced conviction.