Neighbor Testifies She Saw Russo Beat Her Daughter With Shoe : Courts: Testimony contradicts defendant’s statements that she did not use any objects to strike girl.

A Thousand Oaks woman testified Wednesday that she was standing on her Westlake balcony several years ago when she witnessed Charlotte Russo pounding her teen-aged daughter in the head with a gym shoe.

The girl, seated on the edge of a barbecue pit, did not resist or defend herself as her screaming mother pummeled her 10 times or more with the shoe, and kicked her and punched her, neighbor Erica Paymard testified.

“After a while, I just yelled for her to stop, that ‘You’re going to kill her! Stop!’ ” said Paymard, the last major witness in Russo’s six-week child-abuse trial.

Paymard testified that Russo turned around, looked at her and took her daughter into the house, where Paymard said the mother’s tirade continued to be audible.

Prosecutors consider Paymard’s testimony significant because it contradicts many of Russo’s statements on the witness stand.

During several days of testimony, Russo admitted to once biting the girl in self-defense and occasionally slapping her. The mother steadfastly denied, however, using any objects to strike her daughter.

Russo also testified that the only times she hit her daughter were when the girl, now 16, “mouthed off” or “sassed” her. Still, Russo said that even on those occasions, she never did more than slap the girl.

But Paymard’s account of that day in early March, 1991, contrasted sharply with Russo’s testimony.

Russo is charged with felony child abuse for reportedly biting the girl, and misdemeanor child abuse for reportedly forcing the girl to sleep in a back-yard racquetball court.

The beating described in court Wednesday lasted 10 minutes, Paymard told the jury.

“For that entire 10 minutes, was Mrs. Russo hitting (her daughter)?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona asked.

“Most of the time, yes,” Paymard said.

“How was she hitting her?” Corona asked.

“She was hitting her about the head and on top of the head.”

“How many times did she hit (her) with the sneaker?”

“I didn’t count, but it could be 10 times.”

The Paymards moved into the house directly behind the Russo’s nine-bedroom home on Outlook Circle in June, 1990. Paymard said she has never met Russo or her daughter. But, she said, she has a teen-aged daughter who was a friend of the Russo girl.

Paymard, who said she had been reluctant to testify and get involved with the prosecution against Russo, testified that she had seen Russo’s daughter several times pedaling her bicycle the 6 1/2 miles to La Reina High School in the summer heat.

She wanted to give the girl a ride because the bike ride seemed torturous, but did not think that it would be appropriate, Paymard testified. Russo has acknowledged forcing her daughter to bike the 13-mile round trip between their home and summer school.

The day of the shoe beating, Paymard said she at first just watched as the girl was grabbed and slapped by her mother. She said Russo was extremely agitated and yelling.

After taking the gym shoe from the girl, Russo began attacking her daughter with it, Paymard told jurors.

Paymard said Russo’s husband, Richard, was also in the back yard, but did not strike the girl or intervene. Richard Russo, a stockbroker, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse and has served a 30-day jail term. He is on three years probation.

Under intense cross-examination, Paymard conceded that she was contacted by investigators only after her 17-year-old daughter applied for a volunteer position on the staff of Assistant Dist. Atty. Colleen Toy White.

Russo’s attorney--James M. Farley, who is White’s opponent in the Tuesday election for a county judgeship--suggested that Paymard’s testimony was designed to help her daughter in her hunt for a job.

After Paymard said her daughter was with her when she saw the Russo girl riding her bike to summer school, Farley asked, “That’s the same daughter who applied for a job with the district attorney’s office, isn’t it?”

Paymard denied that her testimony was influenced by the job hunt.

She also acknowledged under cross examination that she is nearsighted and did not have on her glasses the day that she said she saw Russo beat her daughter with the shoe. She said that was a reason she never spoke up to authorities about the incident.

“When I saw this, I didn’t have my glasses on,” she testified. “And because I didn’t have my glasses on, (authorities) would question, ‘What did you really see?’ ”

Paymard paused briefly and declared, “But I know what I saw.”