TV Producer Accused in Wife's Death Appears in Court

Judge Suzanne Segal scheduled a Nov. 29 hearing to determine whether Beresford-Redman should be allowed to post bail

Former "Survivor'' producer Bruce Beresford-Redman,  who is accused of killing his wife during a vacation in Cancun, made his  initial court appearance in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday.

During the brief court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Suzanne Segal  scheduled a Nov. 29 hearing to determine whether Beresford-Redman, 38, should  be allowed to post bail pending an extradition proceeding.

According to the Department of Justice, Beresford Redman was arrested in his Rancho Palos Verdes home without incident late Tuesday by U.S. Marshals and FBI agents five months after being accused of killing his wife, Monica Beresford Redman.

Beresford Redman will be sent to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and booked into custody. He's expected to make an initial court appearance Wednesday morning, according to the Department of Justice.

Beresford Redman is charged in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico, with aggravated homicide, according to Mexican Extradition documents.

The body of Monica Beresford Redman was found in April in a sewer at the Moon Palace Hotel in Cancun, Mexico where the two were vacationing without their children. He returned to the United States before an arrest warrant was issued in Mexico. Since then, he has been fighting extradition.

"We are disappointed by the United States government's decision to arrest Bruce Beresford-Redman," Beresford-Redman's attorney, Richard Hirsch, said in a statement. "Based upon our investigation he is an innocent man being wrongfully accused by a foreign government. We hope that after full consideration of both sides, a federal court will decide not to extradite him."

Beresford Redman has proclaimed his innocence in an earlier statement this year released by his attorney, Robert Hirsch. He referred to his wife as the "axis around which our whole family revolved."

Court papers note that forensic experts found stains on a pillar in the couple's hotel room, on the bedsheets and on a balcony railing. Those stains tested positive for the presence of blood, according to the court papers. Hotel records also indicated that the door to the couple's hotel room was opened at least nine times between midnight and 7 a.m. April 6, with at least four entries between 4 and 4:15 a.m., prosecutors wrote in the court document.

"During the April 7, 2010, interview of (Beresford-Redman) conducted by Mexican authorities after the disappearance of his wife, law enforcement officers observed scratches or abrasions on both of (his) hands, behind his ear, on his left shin, and on his right ankle," according to the court document.

Beresford-Redman "said the scratches on his hands and legs came from climbing a slippery wall during an excursion earlier on the trip. He stated that the scratches behind his ear were caused when he surfaced too quickly while swimming and hit a rope connected to the boat," prosecutors wrote in the court papers.

He also contended that the loud noises coming from the room were caused by a game he and his wife were playing with their 3-year-old son, according to the court papers.

According to prosecutors, Beresford-Redman had admitted to his wife before the trip that he had had an affair. Monica Beresford-Redman withdrew money from their joint bank account and told her husband that if he agreed to a divorce, she would give him back half the money, prosecutors contended.
 

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