Motives of 2 Key Officials Questioned in Russo Case

A teen-aged girl who said she was beaten and forced to live in a racquetball court behind her posh Westlake home questioned whether a prosecutor and detective investigating the case were really out to help her, the girl’s older brother testified Wednesday.

Tony Russo, 25, said the girl made the statement when he met with her in December, seven months after she was taken out of the family’s home. The meeting was unsupervised and violated a court order, officials said.

Russo said his sister told him that Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona and sheriff’s investigator Bob LeMay seemed more interested in convicting Charlotte and Richard Russo to advance their careers than in helping her.

“She said that sometimes it just feels like Dee Corona and Detective LeMay are just looking out for their careers,” testified Tony Russo. He said he agreed with his sister.

“What did you mean when you agreed?” asked Corona, seated next to LeMay at the prosecution’s table.

“You were there just to win the case,” Russo answered Corona.

Outside court, Corona and LeMay denied they were looking for promotions from their work in the case.

Richard Russo--a 50-year-old stockbroker--pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse and has served a 30-day jail term. Charlotte Russo faces up to three years in state prison if convicted of felony and misdemeanor child abuse.

“We are prosecuting Mrs. Russo because she abused her daughter,” Corona insisted later in an interview. “She beat her. She punched her. She bit her. And that’s why we are prosecuting her.”

LeMay listened as Corona spoke outside the courtroom. “And I concur,” he said.

Tony Russo and his five other siblings have sided with their parents in the child abuse case as opposed to supporting their sister, according to court testimony.

In his testimony Wednesday, Tony Russo said that he was aware his sister was being forced to sleep in the racquetball court, but that he did not see it as a big problem. All she had to do was follow the family’s rules and do her schoolwork properly and she would have been welcomed back into the main home, he said.

“It didn’t seem to bother her, being out there, and it didn’t seem to change any (of her) manners,” he said.

Later, he said of the racquetball court living arrangement for the girl: “She did it to herself.”

Tony Russo also supported his mother’s contention that she did not assault the 16-year-old girl in the family’s garage on May 24, 1993. Two neighbors have testified that while taking an evening stroll they saw Charlotte Russo striking the girl in the garage as Richard Russo yelled at her at the top of his lungs.

The neighbors called authorities, leading to the arrests of the Russos.

But Tony Russo said he saw the incident and that his mother only nudged the girl.

In general, Russo said his sister often would lie. He acknowledged that in a letter to his father’s probation officer he once wrote that lying is “an addiction” for his sister.

He said he was unaware that he was breaking a court order when he twice visited his sister in December while she was in foster care. Russo family members are only allowed supervised visits with the girl, but Tony Russo said he did not get permission for his visits.

It was during one early December visit in which he and his sister went out for pizza that the girl questioned the motives of the prosecutor and the sheriff’s investigator.

The trial, in its fifth week, will resume Tuesday. It is expected to go to the jury for a decision by next Thursday, Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. told jurors.