VENTURA : Bruised Woman Is Denied Cut in Bail

A Ventura woman accused of forgery and making false accusations against her husband’s probation officer failed to win a reduction in her $50,000 bail on Friday after she appeared in court in a wheelchair with bruises on her face.

Scarlett O’Casey, 48, appeared before Municipal Judge John Smiley with a reddish-purple bruise under her eye, a lump on her cheek and a swollen lip.

Defense attorney Joe Lax asked Smiley to release O’Casey on her own recognizance until a Feb. 22 preliminary hearing because of her frail condition.

Lax said during an interview that O’Casey got the injuries when inmates attacked her twice in the Ventura County Jail and she had to seek outside medical treatment for her injuries.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Roberts argued that O’Casey should not be released “because she’s an unstable personality.”

“She’s malingering,” Roberts said. “The sheriff’s office is prepared to testify that all of the wounds she exhibits are self-inflicted.” Smiley read O’Casey’s medical reports from the jail, then refused to grant Lax’s request to reduce her bail or Roberts’ request to increase it.

Lax said the back of O’Casey’s upper arm bore finger-shaped bruises that would have been impossible for her to inflict on herself.

Her former husband, Woodland Hills attorney Benson J. Goldstein, was convicted of spouse abuse in 1988 for striking O’Casey in the head. The two have since divorced. O’Casey was arrested last month after accusing her husband of providing free legal advice to his probation officer in exchange for leniency in enforcing his probation.

She pleaded not guilty to eight charges of forgery on Jan. 16 in connection with letters purportedly written by the probation officer, Chris Jiron, and O’Casey’s husband.