Lolita Lopez
The defense attorney for Lois Goodman is accusing the LAPD of turning the case into a media circus by arresting the 70-year-old woman in New York, where she was set to work at the U.S. Open. Goodman is accused of killing her 80-year-old husband with a coffee mug last April. She returned to LA to face the charges. Her arraignment was delayed Friday. Lolita Lopez reports from Van Nuys for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2012.
A professional tennis referee accused of bludgeoning her husband to death with a coffee mug saw her arraignment postponed until next week during a court hearing Friday.
Lois Goodman, 70, was arrested Tuesday in a New York City hotel where she was staying with other referees there to officiate U.S. Open tennis matches.
She was sent back to Los Angeles Thursday night and appeared briefly Friday in Van Nuys Superior Court from behind a metal gate.
Her attorney, Alison Triessl, said outside the courthouse that the charge against Goodman was "completely unfounded."
"The Los Angeles Police Department should be utterly ashamed of themselves for arresting a 70-year old woman in New York when she resides in Los Angeles," Treissl said.
"The fact that they arrested her while in New York -- despite the fact that she had been represented by counsel and cooperating with them -- is ridiculous and that resulted in this media circus," Treissl said.
Goodman wore her navy U.S. Open uniform in court, just as she did Tuesday in a New York courtroom where she waived her right to an extradition hearing.
She said she wanted to return to California as soon as possible to fight allegations that she killed Alan Goodman, who was 80 when he died in April in the couple's Woodland Hills home. Police said fragments of a mug, the alleged murder weapon, were found on her husband's scalp.
"Pieces of the coffee mug were still attached to the handle and she was able to further stab him with the coffee mug," Deputy District Attorney Lisa Tanner said.
Tanner would not comment on reports that Goodman had been emailing with another man prior to Alan Goodman's death. The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that the emails were reviewed by police and were contained in court papers.
Goodman had said that she was out of the house when Goodman died, and returned to find his body in a bloody bed. She said she assumed he had had a heart attack and fallen down stairs, police have said.
Goodman's arraignment on one charge of murder is now scheduled for next Wednesday morning. She is being held on $1 million bail.
NOTE: An earlier version of this article misspelled Triessl's name. The post has been corrected.
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