`THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING'; GODMOTHER OF INFANT SLAIN BY BRITISH AU PAIR ROCKED BY SENTENCE REDUCTION.

MOMENTS after it was announced that a judge had reduced the second-degree murder conviction of Louise Woodward to involuntary manslaughter, the Chicago woman who is Matthew Eappen's aunt and godmother stood in the hallway of the Northwest Side elementary school where she teaches, trying to absorb the news.

``How could the judge have made this ruling?'' said Sharon Spellman, the sister of Matthew's mother, Debbie Eappen. ``I really don't even know what to think right now. And now we have to wait for the sentencing this afternoon.''

Hours later, after the sentence had been reduced to time served, Spellman categorized her feelings this way: ``I'm completely appalled and shocked. The family is back to feeling the way we did on February 4 (the day Matthew was taken to the hospital) - that this can't be happening to us. If someone can be convicted of killing a defenseless baby, and the judge says she can go home, what does that say about our system?''

Matthew's parents left their Newton, Mass., home a few days ago to avoid media scrutiny, and they remained in seclusion and did not comment Monday. (As of Monday evening they hadn't even communicated with family members.) But in a number of conversations before and after Monday's decision, Matthew's aunt talked candidly about a case that has garnered extraordinary global interest.

``This is very bizarre,'' she said. ``It seems to me that (defense attorney) Barry Scheck has done for child abuse in this case what he did for spousal abuse in the O.J. trial.''

The ruling was greeted with robust cheers by supporters of Woodward and angry disbelief by those who believe the only real victim in this case is the 8-month-old baby who is buried at All Saints Cemetery in suburban Des Plaines, Ill. Matthew's parents, Debbie and Sunil Eappen, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and much of the extended family still lives there.

Monday morning, as Spellman absorbed the news about the reduced verdict, she was holding a copy of a Boston Globe story about a shaken-baby case tried in Judge Hiller Zobel's courtroom in 1989. That time, the judge let stand a second-degree murder conviction.

``I don't understand how he could (back the jury in that case) but reduce the verdict in this case,'' Spellman said.

She said the family feels that a lot of what has been written and said about the case is little more than speculation or uninformed opinion.

``A big part of the problem is that everybody seems to be forming opinions without having all the information,'' she said. ``It's an injustice to the jurors to say they're idiots. How can people who see two minutes of highlights on the news or on `Hard Copy' criticize jurors who were there for all of the testimony?''

Critics of the family have painted the Eappens as rich yuppie doctors who didn't have the time or inclination to care for their own children. (In a now-infamous call to Boston's popular talk-show host Howie Carr on WRKO, a caller said: ``Apparently the parents didn't want a kid. Now they don't have a kid.'')

``My other sister, who lives in San Diego, was at the hairdresser's, and people were talking about the case, and one of the employees said to her, `I think the mother did it.' My sister didn't want to say who she is, so she simply told the woman, `The mother did not do it.'

``Anyone who knows Sunil and Debbie knows they are the nicest people, and the most devoted parents. . . . When Matty was born, Sunil took an unpaid paternity leave. Debbie turned down a fellowship so she could work a three-day week and come home every day to breast-feed the baby. They made career choices so they could spend more time with their children.''

Spellman said it has been ``weird'' to pick up People or Newsweek and to read about her family - ``You never expect to be thrust into the spotlight like this'' - and she concedes that the defense team probably did a better job of spinning the media.

``We have been questioning after all this if we should have used the media more to our advantage, but we honored the judge's gag order in the months preceding the trial. (Louise's mother) Susan Woodward made numerous appearances and statements fueling the controversy. We respected the process and believed that justice would run its course.''

But most disappointing, Spellman said, is that so many fingers were pointed at Matthew's parents.

``Not many alleged criminals in America get a million-dollar defense. Even O.J. Simpson, not the NFL or a car rental agency, had to pay for his own. The bill for Louise Woodward's defense is being footed by EF Au Pair, her employer. (They had) private detectives out en masse investigating my sister and brother-in-law, trying to find dirt to use against them. For all their efforts, it seems the worst anyone could say about the family is that my sister is a `perfectionist.'

``Please, Louise, not another word from your camp about what is or isn't fair. You are in a country where the accused have rights that the victims do not. You are in a country where a top-of-the-line defense team can be bought, and you don't even have to pay for it.

``What isn't fair is that Matty has died, beaten by the hands that were hired to care for him. . . . What isn't fair is that Matty has now been dead longer than he was alive. And 15 years from now, he still won't be back.

``An innocent, defenseless baby was brutally killed. It wasn't an accident.''

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7 Photos

Photo: (1--6--Color) no caption (Trial photos)

(7) British au pair Louise Woodward, center, smiles as she confers with defense attorneys Elaine Whitfield-Sharp and Barry Scheck in Cambridge, Mass.

Associated Press