Mother Pleads Guilty in Child-Abuse Case : Courts: Westlake woman accepts agreement that will keep her out of state prison. Victim, 16, is critical of plea bargain.

Charlotte Russo, the affluent Westlake mother accused of locking her teen-age daughter in a back-yard racquetball court, pleaded guilty to felony child abuse Tuesday after a judge promised she would spend no more than six months in jail.

The plea agreement, which came after a jury deadlocked 11 to 1 last month for conviction on the felony, was criticized by the 16-year-old victim.

“I think she should get more. That’s not even a year,” the girl said outside court. “I was in the racquetball court for two whole years. She’s not going to know what it’s like at all. It is not going to be drilled into that thick skull of hers.”

Russo appeared nervous as she entered her guilty plea before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr.

“How do you plead to inflicting corporal injury on a child?” Campbell asked.

“Guilty,” the 50-year-old Russo replied softly.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 2, after probation officials complete a background report on Russo.

Dressed in light blue slacks and a thin white jacket, Russo maintained a stern demeanor throughout the hearing and left the Hall of Justice without talking to reporters.

But before her plea, as she headed into Campbell’s third-floor courtroom, Russo made an obscene gesture at a Times photographer. Last month, after the jury convicted her on a misdemeanor child abuse charge, Russo hit the photographer with her purse.

Her attorney, James M. Farley, said he was disappointed by the resolution of the 13-month case.

“I’m sorry to see it end this way, I really am, because I don’t think she committed a felony,” he said.

After the jury deadlocked last month, prosecutors said they would seek a second trial unless Russo pleaded guilty to a felony.

The district attorney’s office did not challenge the judge’s promise not to sentence Russo to prison. She could have faced up to six years on the felony conviction. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona said it was unlikely that any judge would have sent Russo to prison, given her lack of a criminal record.

“I’m happy that the case is resolving, and I think it is resolving on a positive note for the victim,” Corona said. She disputed the victim’s contention that Russo was receiving light treatment.

“We have a lot of people in custody who could do 180 days standing on their head,” Corona said. “It’s nothing big for them. It’s a big deal for Mrs. Russo.”

Defense attorney Farley said he would recommend that any jail sentence meted out to Russo be served in the county’s work-furlough program rather than County Jail.

He said Russo has accepted a clerical position with a Westlake real estate firm. Being employed is a condition of acceptance into the work-furlough program, Farley said. Participants in the program spend nights at a county facility but are allowed to go to work.

Russo and her stockbroker husband, Richard, were arrested May 24, 1993, and charged with child abuse after neighbors reported seeing Charlotte Russo attack the girl, then 15, in the garage of the family’s nine-bedroom home.

The girl testified about years of suffering at the hands of her mother, who she said handled much of the discipline in the household while her father logged long hours at work.

During the seven-week trial, the girl testified for five days--saying her mother had punched, pinched, scratched, bit and forced her to sleep for long periods of time in the racquetball court. On many days her diet consisted of oatmeal and raw eggs, she said.

Russo also took the stand, denying her daughter’s accusations. The mother described the girl as a problem child who lied, stole and refused to follow commands.

Russo said her husband ordered the girl to sleep in the $75,000 racquetball court as punishment for violating her no-sodium diet. But Russo said the girl slept there only for a two-week period.

The case seemed to turn, however, when several neighbors recounted seeing Russo beat the victim. One neighbor said she was standing on her balcony behind the Russo home several years ago when she saw Charlotte Russo pounding the girl in the head with a gym shoe.

Richard Russo, 49, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse last November and served a 30-day jail term in work furlough, officials said. He was also placed on three years’ probation.

In her first interview since her testimony, the girl--adopted when she was a year old--criticized the plea agreement but also said she might consider reunification with her family eventually.

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The girl, now living in foster care in Moorpark, said she was happy that a second trial will not be necessary, but added that her mother does not seem to be remorseful. Rather, she said, her mother appears to have pleaded guilty because she felt backed into a corner by the district attorney’s insistence that she plead to a felony.

“It seems as though she didn’t have a choice, unless she wants to go to jail for three years,” the girl said, referring to a possible state prison term. “In a way, she admits it but she still hasn’t said, ‘I’m sorry.’ ”

During the short interview, which was conducted under the supervision of the girl’s foster mother, the teen-ager appeared to be in a good mood, often joking about her mother’s case and other events.

Told that Russo, a registered nurse, was preparing for a job in real estate, the girl said, “I hope she’s not going to sell racquetball courts.”

As for reunification with her family--which includes six other children, one who is younger and also adopted, and five who are grown--the girl said: “Not right now. Maybe in the future.”

She noted that all her brothers and sisters testified for her mother and said they gave her “dirty looks” when she came to court to testify.

“They knew what went on,” she said.

Today marks her first full year with her foster mother, who is married and has two children, ages 11 and 13.

“We like each other,” the girl said. “I get along with her family.”

The foster mother, a homemaker and independent nutritional-product distributor, said the trial was hard on the girl. “It was very rough on her, very rough on her, as you can imagine. Her whole life changed.”

The girl, who had not been in public school full time since her mother took her out for home schooling several years ago, is scheduled to begin her senior year at Moorpark High School in the fall.

“So, things are looking up,” the girl said.