U.S. Open tennis umpire told cops she wasn't home when husband died

 A high-ranking umpire on the U.S. pro tennis circuit charged with bludgeoning her 80-year-old husband with a coffee mug told police she was working and not home at the time of his death, authorities said.

Los Angeles police contend that Lois Ann Goodman, 70, tried to make her husband's death look like he took a deadly fall down the stairs of their Woodland Hills home.

Goodman was taken into custody Tuesday at a hotel in New York City, where she was preparing to work at the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Goodman has worked as an umpire for decades, officiating matches of some of the sport's top players.

She waived extradition in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday and will be returning to Los Angeles to face the murder charge.

Alan Frederick Goodman died on April 17.

Despite Goodman's expression of sadness over the accident, Los Angeles police Lt. David Storaker said it "was a suspicious death from the onset," adding that Alan Goodman's head injuries seemed more consistent with an attack.

Within weeks, forensic evidence supported that view, officials said. A Los Angeles County coroner's medical examiner found that the injuries were inconsistent with an accidental fall.

"It was a homicide. He had multiple sharp-force injuries," said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner.

Storaker said detectives believe they have a motive for the killing, but they declined to release those details. They are asking the public to come forward with any relevant information about the couple in the months leading to Alan Goodman's death.

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— Richard Winton