An attorney for a professional tennis referee accused of killing her 80-year-old husband denounced the allegations Friday and criticized Los Angeles police for arresting her in New York, where she would have been a line judge in next week's U.S. Open.
Still wearing a tennis official outfit, Lois Goodman, 70, appeared briefly in Superior Court in Van Nuys but her arraignment and bond hearing were continued to Wednesday to allow her attorney time to file a motion seeking reduction of her $1 million bail and allow her to be released on her own recognizance.
Her sister and daughter were in the courtroom but couldn't see her because she was behind a meshed-covered window.
Outside court, Goodman's attorney condemned the arrest.
''She's distraught. This is an outrage,'' Alison Triessl said. ''She is in shock and her family is very concerned for her.''
Goodman has cooperated with investigators throughout, she said.
''These charges are outrageous and they're completely unfounded,'' the attorney said. ''The Los Angeles Police Department should be ashamed of arresting a 70-year-old woman in New York who has made herself available to investigators in Los Angeles.''
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Tanner said prosecutors allege that Goodman bludgeoned her husband to death with a coffee cup that broke and then used the sharp handle to stab him.
''All of these facts will come out during the trial,'' Tanner said. ''The people are confident that justice will prevail.''
Goodman was returned to Los Angeles late Thursday after agreeing to not fight extradition from New York.
Los Angeles police have said Goodman was poised to be in New York for several weeks and they wanted to move swiftly to arrest a murder suspect.
Her husband, Alan Goodman, died on April 17 at the couple's condominium in Woodland Hills. Authorities briefly accepted Lois Goodman's explanation that she returned home to find a blood-covered coffee mug and her husband lying in bed not breathing after most likely falling down the stairs.
Two paramedics made note of an odd-shaped wound on his head, according to a police detective's affidavit obtained by the Los Angeles Times and KCAL-TV.
A coroner's investigator who was sent to a mortuary to sign the death certificate set off a homicide investigation when he saw cuts around the man's head and ears, the records showed. An autopsy later found bits of the coffee cup in the cuts.
When police executed a subsequent search warrant, they found blood throughout the house ''inconsistent with accidental death'' and suggesting a ''mobile victim,'' the affidavit said.
During the search, police seized evidence that Lois Goodman had been communicating on the Internet with another man, though the nature of that relationship was not clear.
The affidavit said one email contained the phrases ''terminating a relationship,'' and having ''alternative sleeping arrangements,'' though police could not determine to what they referred.
During her initial questioning, Goodman ''went out of her way to account for her time on the day of the deceased death'' and showed other signs the death may not have been an accident.
''Lois' emotional reaction to what she had seen and the loss of her husband was not typical of that of a grieving spouse,'' the affidavit said.
Detectives worked the case for four months. An arrest warrant was filed Aug. 14.
