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Lois Goodman, U.S. Open tennis referee, headed to LA to face murder charge
Tennis referee Lois Goodman appears at her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012.
/ CBS New York/Jefferson Siegel, Pool(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Lois Goodman, the professional tennis referee accused of beating her 80-year-old husband to death with a coffee mug, was headed toward Los Angeles on Thursday to face a murder charge after her New York arrest.
Los Angeles Police Department detectives escorted Goodman from a Manhattan court, still wearing her her navy-blue warm-up suit for the U.S. Open. She'd been arrested while in town to work as a line judge at the tournament.
Alan Goodman died April 17 at the couple's condominium in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. His wife told police he apparently had an accident while she was officiating at a tennis match, but police said this week they considered the death suspicious from the start.
The husband's head injuries and the amount of blood at the scene didn't square with his wife's suggestion that he'd fallen down some stairs, and police noticed a broken mug, authorities said. An arrest warrant was filed Aug. 14.
Lois Goodman is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles on Monday. The 70-year-old agreed not to fight extradition to California.
"She's anxious to defend herself" in California, said her New York lawyer, Guy Oksenhendler.
He questioned authorities' decision to have her arrested in New York, suggesting it was a tactic to get headlines on two coasts.
"My concern is that their actions may prejudice her defense in California," he said.
The Goodmans had owned an auto parts business since the early 1960s and had three daughters, according to a 1994 Los Angeles Times profile that explored Lois Goodman's experiences refereeing matches involving some of tennis' biggest stars. She began officiating in 1979.
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