john james “j.j.” paulsen jail for 26 years

A television comedy writer and producer for shows including "Cosby" and "In Living Color" has been sentenced in Indiana to 26 years in prison in the beating death of his wife.
John James “JJ” Paulsen, a former writer, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison. Paulsen was convicted on reduced charges after a plea deal. Paulsen was charged for voluntary manslaughter, neglect of a dependent and moving a body from the scene of death.

The cause of the charges was the death of Leanne Paulsen in April 2007. Paulsen’s wife was found dead and partly mummified in the attic of their home in Carmel. Paulsen’s infant son, 16 months old, was left alone at home. Leanne Paulsen, a Carmel High School homecoming queen, died because of head trauma, which gave her internal bleeding in her brain.

Leanne Paulsen, 39, died from trauma that led to internal bleeding in her brain, an injury that left no telltale blood at the scene of her death. And by the time authorities found the former Carmel High School homecoming queen, she had been partially mummified after weeks in the attic.

Paulsen was arrested and has been in the Hamilton County Jail ever since. But without a confession, witnesses or a weapon, prosecutors said a plea bargain made sense.

John James “JJ” Paulsen used to write for hugely successful TV shows like “Cosby and “In Living Color”. He was no longer working when his family was relocated to Carmel, from New York.

Leanne’s mother, Suzanne Otis, today testified J.J. Paulsen battered Leanne Paulsen in the year and a half leading up to her death, sometimes leaving her bloody and once breaking her nose. Paulsen had been convicted of domestic battery in 2007 for an attack on his wife. “I will never see Leanne do marvelous things anymore, and I will never be able to hug her and tell her I love her,” Otis said.

Otis urged Judge Dan Pfleging to sentence Paulsen to the maximum sentence. “Leanne did not deserve to die as she did, and the man who killed her does not deserve leniency,” Otis said.

Rachel Sweet, who worked as a writer with J.J. Paulsen on several TV shows and dated him for years, said he was never physically abusive in their relationship and the two “laughed a lot together.”

Sweet said the two lived together in the late 1980s and early 1990s and she still often talked on the phone to Paulsen, even in the weeks leading up to his wife’s death. Sweet said she never met or spoke to Leanne, but J.J. Paulsen often complained to her about his wife.

In April and March 2007, Sweet said J.J. Paulsen seemed “distraught and disoriented.”

The Paulsens moved to Carmel in 2004 from New York after falling on hard times financially, prosecutors said. J.J. Paulsen was no longer working as a writer, their home was in foreclosure and creditors were calling to collect overdue bill payments, police said. Evidence suggesting both Paulsens were heavy drinkers, police said.

Family services officials visited the home in 2006-07 to investigate both the battery case and the drinking. They still were keeping tabs on J.J. Paulsen and visiting the home in the weeks leading up to Leanne’s death. Dec. 23, J.J. Paulsen accepted a plea bargain offered by Hamilton County prosecutors that charged him with voluntary manslaughter indicating the death might have occurred in the heat of anger and was not premeditated. As part of that deal, Paulsen also was charged with neglect of a dependent and moving a body from the scene of death.

Judge Dan Pfleging sentenced Paulsen to the maximum allowed under all three charges, which totals 26 years.

He also cannot write, produce or direct, or collaborate with anyone in those activities, to profit from his wife’s death.