COMATOSE WOMAN TO REMAIN AT HOME.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

A court commissioner ruled Friday that a woman who claims a Rottweiler ate her comatose daughter's foot can continue to care for her, even though city officials assert her story is fiction.

Los Angeles County lawyers had filed a petition seeking a court order to take Tina Holland away from her mother. But a Superior Court commissioner agreed Friday to allow Linda Holland to keep custody of her 32-year-old daughter, as long as social workers can check on them.

Linda Holland has been her daughter's caretaker since 1989, when Tina Holland fell in a horseback-riding accident that left her crippled and comatose. In November 1997, Holland reported that a dog slinked into their Shadow Hills home and ate part of her daughter's right foot.

Animal regulation officials and doctors concluded that an animal was not involved in the attack, but police have not completed their investigation.

The county had sought to become the equivalent of Tina Holland's legal guardian. ``Ms. Holland was malnourished, with a backed up feeding tube, bug bites, bed sores and bruises of the chest and legs when admitted,'' county lawyers said in a petition. ``Hospital staff feel she should be placed in a convalescent home, but are afraid they will be sued by the mother.''