(January 17, 2008)

At the Nueces County Courthouse, a 23 year old Port Aransas mother, Erica Friesenhahn, is facing a possible life sentence if she's convicted of sexually-assaulting her 2 year old daughter.

Friesenhahn was in court Thursday, she sat with other prisoners awaiting her turn in front of the judge. Once she was before Judge Tom Greenwell, the first thing he did was to appoint James Gardner as her attorney. Friesenhahn was shackled as she met Gardner for the first time. She then pleaded not guilty to the charge that she sexually assaulted her 2 year old daughter. She also told the the judge she was not guilty of injuring her toddler.

Prosecutors say it's just a sad case. "We're taking the case very seriously. I think it's going to be very, very sad for all the people involved. Having to view the evidence, but we have good evidence in this case and we want to present it to a jury and we want to seek justice in this case for that little girl who was so terribly injured," said Sandra Eastwood from the Nueces County District Attorney's Office.

Eric Curcuru is Friesenhahn's boyfriend and co-defendant. It's believed that he sodomized Friesenhahn's daughter. On Wednesday, Curcuru made his $500,000 bond. Friesenhahn had to be brought back from Missouri to be tried here for the crimes.

Her attorney says he's got a lot of work to do between now and the March 10th trial date. "You have to basically start from square one on the case and go all the way through. And if I need to talk to witnesses I'll talk to them or get an investigator that will interview those people and report back to me and those kinds of things," said Gardner.

As for Friesenhahn's daughter, we're told the little girl is with her paternal grandmother and father and is doing well. Michael Gibson 3-news.