Alan and Lois Goodman, in 2012, had been married 50 years. In the early 1960s Alan started an auto parts business in Los Angeles. Lois, who in 1979 became a tennis referee, had risen to the top of her profession, and at age 70 was still officiating matches. She and her 80-year-old husband lived in a condominium in the Woodland Hills district of Los Angeles out in the San Fernando Valley.
On April 17, 2012 Lois Goodman called 911 to report the discovery of Alan Goodman lying on his bed either unconscious or dead. LAPD officers from the Topanga station responded to the scene. According Lois, she had been away from the condo six hours during which time she had been refereeing tennis matches at Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills.
Upon entering the dwelling, Lois said she noticed a broken coffee mug on the floor with blood on it. From the mug, she followed a trail of blood into Alan's bedroom where she found him unresponsive with a bloody wound to the right side of his head.
Lois Goodman informed the police officers that her husband, a diabetic with high blood pressure, must have had a heart attack, fallen down a flight of stairs, then somehow made it to his room and climbed onto his bed. Because of Mr. Goodman's age the LAPD officers had no reason to suspect criminal homicide.
Two fire department paramedics pronounced Mr. Goodman dead at the scene. While neither of the medics were trained homicide investigators, they possessed enough common sense and death site experience to interpret an oddly shaped wound to the right side of the dead man's head as possible evidence of foul play. The medics took care not to disturb the body on grounds it might be part of a murder scene. Police officers, however, relying on Lois Goodman's death narration, allowed the body to be transported to its place of cremation. In a situation that cried out for, at the very least, an autopsy, Mr. Goodman's corpse, and perhaps evidence of murder, were headed for the furnace.
Whether or not a homicide had occurred in the Woodland Hills condominium, the initial phase of the Goodman case was not how violent, sudden death situations should be handled in the second largest police department in the country, or for that matter anywhere else.
On April 20, 2012, three days after Alan Goodman's death, an investigator with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office who had been dispatched to sign Mr. Goodman's death certificate noticed several deep cuts on the dead man's head and ear that seemed too severe to have been caused by an accidental spill down a flight of steps. This death investigator's rather basic observation led to an autopsy of Mr. Goodman's body.
The next day a forensic pathologist with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office determined that Mr. Goodman's cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head from a sharp object. The pathologist found shards of the broken coffee mug imbedded in the victim's wounds. Moreover, Mr. Goodman had not suffered a heart attack. Instead of a flight of stairs, Mr. Goodman had been killed by being struck in the head with a coffee mug. As a result of the autopsy findings the coroner's office ruled the manner of this death a homicide.
Had Mr. Goodman's body been cremated, the cause and manner of this man's death would have remained a mystery. On the other hand, because the autopsy had been delayed three days, the forensic pathologist could not pinpoint the time of death.
Los Angeles detectives, on April 21, 2012, searched the Goodman condominium in Woodland Hills. The searchers discovered heavy blood staining on the carpets, on the refrigerator door, inside the linen closet and on a wall near the inside door to the garage.
In general, an analysis of the blood spatter patterns in the condo did not support the theory that Mr. Goodman had fallen down a flight of stairs. (I don't know if the police had collected the broken coffee mug and its pieces from the crime scene. If they didn't preserve what turned out to be the murder weapon, that was a problem. And even if officers did retrieve this evidence later, that would be a chain of custody problem.)
Shortly after the delayed search of the Goodman condo, detectives questioned Lois Goodman, this time as a suspect in her husband's murder. According to published police documents, she gave conflicting accounts of what she had observed upon entering the dwelling that day. At one point she described the scene as "violent" and suggested that someone may have "positioned" Mr. Goodman's body in his bed.
Over the next four months, Los Angeles detectives, with Lois Goodman as their prime suspect, investigated the murder. This led to the discovery of emails she had exchanged with a man who may have been a lover. In one email, Lois Goodman referred to "terminating" a relationship. Investigators suspected that Goodman had murdered her husband for another man. The fact there were no signs of forced entry into the condo, and that nothing had been stolen from the dwelling, comprised circumstantial evidence that Lois Goodman had been responsible for her husband's violent death. Moreover, when speaking to the responding officers that day, the dead man's wife had gone out of her way to establish her whereabouts at the time of his death, behavior inconsistent with that of a grieving widow.
In mid-August 2012, after a Los Angeles County prosecutor charged Lois Goodman with the murder of her husband, detectives followed her to New York City where she was scheduled to officiate at the U.S. Tennis Open at Flushing Meadows. On August 21, on the eve of the Open, New York City officers went to her Manhattan hotel room and arrested her on the California murder warrant. That evening Los Goodman found herself in the Rikers Island lock-up under $1 million bond pending her extradition hearing.
Back in Los Angeles on August 29, 2012, at her arraignment hearing, the judge, assured by Goodman's attorney Alison Triessl that the tennis line umpire was not dangerous, or a candidate for flight, reduced her bail to $500,000. In speaking to reporters, attorney Triessl, in making the case that her 70-year-old client was physically incapable of killing her husband, pointed out that she had received two full knee replacements and a shoulder replacement. According to the attorney Lois Goodman was "wearing two hearing aids and had rheumatoid arthritis."
On September 3, 2012, Lois Goodman, after spending two weeks in jail, was released on bail.
The FBI announced, on October 10, 2012, that Lois Goodman, when asked by a bureau polygraph examiner if she had killed her husband, answered no--and passed the test. The polygraph expert, Jack Trimarco, said there was "no significant reaction" when Goodman answered "no" to the payload question.
On November 30, 2012, the Los Angeles prosecutor, due to insufficient evidence, dropped the murder charges against Lois Goodman.
In April 2015 a federal judge dismissed Lois Goodman's false arrest lawsuit against the LAPD. The plaintiff claimed the murder accusation caused her "public humiliation." In setting out his rationale for the dismissal, Judge John A. Kronstadt wrote that the LAPD homicide investigation had produced "substantial details sufficient to support a finding of probable cause to arrest Lois Goodman."
Lois Goodman, in March 2018, filed suit in federal court claiming the Los Angeles Coroner's Office had deprived her of her civil rights by falsifying her husband's autopsy report. The 76-year-old plaintiff asked for $100,000 in damages to cover the cost of her bail and legal fees stemming from her arrest. The suit was quickly dismissed.
On April 17, 2012 Lois Goodman called 911 to report the discovery of Alan Goodman lying on his bed either unconscious or dead. LAPD officers from the Topanga station responded to the scene. According Lois, she had been away from the condo six hours during which time she had been refereeing tennis matches at Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills.
Upon entering the dwelling, Lois said she noticed a broken coffee mug on the floor with blood on it. From the mug, she followed a trail of blood into Alan's bedroom where she found him unresponsive with a bloody wound to the right side of his head.
Lois Goodman informed the police officers that her husband, a diabetic with high blood pressure, must have had a heart attack, fallen down a flight of stairs, then somehow made it to his room and climbed onto his bed. Because of Mr. Goodman's age the LAPD officers had no reason to suspect criminal homicide.
Two fire department paramedics pronounced Mr. Goodman dead at the scene. While neither of the medics were trained homicide investigators, they possessed enough common sense and death site experience to interpret an oddly shaped wound to the right side of the dead man's head as possible evidence of foul play. The medics took care not to disturb the body on grounds it might be part of a murder scene. Police officers, however, relying on Lois Goodman's death narration, allowed the body to be transported to its place of cremation. In a situation that cried out for, at the very least, an autopsy, Mr. Goodman's corpse, and perhaps evidence of murder, were headed for the furnace.
Whether or not a homicide had occurred in the Woodland Hills condominium, the initial phase of the Goodman case was not how violent, sudden death situations should be handled in the second largest police department in the country, or for that matter anywhere else.
On April 20, 2012, three days after Alan Goodman's death, an investigator with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office who had been dispatched to sign Mr. Goodman's death certificate noticed several deep cuts on the dead man's head and ear that seemed too severe to have been caused by an accidental spill down a flight of steps. This death investigator's rather basic observation led to an autopsy of Mr. Goodman's body.
The next day a forensic pathologist with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office determined that Mr. Goodman's cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head from a sharp object. The pathologist found shards of the broken coffee mug imbedded in the victim's wounds. Moreover, Mr. Goodman had not suffered a heart attack. Instead of a flight of stairs, Mr. Goodman had been killed by being struck in the head with a coffee mug. As a result of the autopsy findings the coroner's office ruled the manner of this death a homicide.
Had Mr. Goodman's body been cremated, the cause and manner of this man's death would have remained a mystery. On the other hand, because the autopsy had been delayed three days, the forensic pathologist could not pinpoint the time of death.
Los Angeles detectives, on April 21, 2012, searched the Goodman condominium in Woodland Hills. The searchers discovered heavy blood staining on the carpets, on the refrigerator door, inside the linen closet and on a wall near the inside door to the garage.
In general, an analysis of the blood spatter patterns in the condo did not support the theory that Mr. Goodman had fallen down a flight of stairs. (I don't know if the police had collected the broken coffee mug and its pieces from the crime scene. If they didn't preserve what turned out to be the murder weapon, that was a problem. And even if officers did retrieve this evidence later, that would be a chain of custody problem.)
Shortly after the delayed search of the Goodman condo, detectives questioned Lois Goodman, this time as a suspect in her husband's murder. According to published police documents, she gave conflicting accounts of what she had observed upon entering the dwelling that day. At one point she described the scene as "violent" and suggested that someone may have "positioned" Mr. Goodman's body in his bed.
Over the next four months, Los Angeles detectives, with Lois Goodman as their prime suspect, investigated the murder. This led to the discovery of emails she had exchanged with a man who may have been a lover. In one email, Lois Goodman referred to "terminating" a relationship. Investigators suspected that Goodman had murdered her husband for another man. The fact there were no signs of forced entry into the condo, and that nothing had been stolen from the dwelling, comprised circumstantial evidence that Lois Goodman had been responsible for her husband's violent death. Moreover, when speaking to the responding officers that day, the dead man's wife had gone out of her way to establish her whereabouts at the time of his death, behavior inconsistent with that of a grieving widow.
In mid-August 2012, after a Los Angeles County prosecutor charged Lois Goodman with the murder of her husband, detectives followed her to New York City where she was scheduled to officiate at the U.S. Tennis Open at Flushing Meadows. On August 21, on the eve of the Open, New York City officers went to her Manhattan hotel room and arrested her on the California murder warrant. That evening Los Goodman found herself in the Rikers Island lock-up under $1 million bond pending her extradition hearing.
Back in Los Angeles on August 29, 2012, at her arraignment hearing, the judge, assured by Goodman's attorney Alison Triessl that the tennis line umpire was not dangerous, or a candidate for flight, reduced her bail to $500,000. In speaking to reporters, attorney Triessl, in making the case that her 70-year-old client was physically incapable of killing her husband, pointed out that she had received two full knee replacements and a shoulder replacement. According to the attorney Lois Goodman was "wearing two hearing aids and had rheumatoid arthritis."
On September 3, 2012, Lois Goodman, after spending two weeks in jail, was released on bail.
The FBI announced, on October 10, 2012, that Lois Goodman, when asked by a bureau polygraph examiner if she had killed her husband, answered no--and passed the test. The polygraph expert, Jack Trimarco, said there was "no significant reaction" when Goodman answered "no" to the payload question.
On November 30, 2012, the Los Angeles prosecutor, due to insufficient evidence, dropped the murder charges against Lois Goodman.
In April 2015 a federal judge dismissed Lois Goodman's false arrest lawsuit against the LAPD. The plaintiff claimed the murder accusation caused her "public humiliation." In setting out his rationale for the dismissal, Judge John A. Kronstadt wrote that the LAPD homicide investigation had produced "substantial details sufficient to support a finding of probable cause to arrest Lois Goodman."
Lois Goodman, in March 2018, filed suit in federal court claiming the Los Angeles Coroner's Office had deprived her of her civil rights by falsifying her husband's autopsy report. The 76-year-old plaintiff asked for $100,000 in damages to cover the cost of her bail and legal fees stemming from her arrest. The suit was quickly dismissed.
Lois Goodman's case was dismissed by the DA, she is innocent. She was falsely accused by overzealous LAPD detectives sleeking notoriety. Her and her family were forced to live through a nightmare of public ridicule on an international level, 2 weeks in prison, loss of reputation, a huge financial hardship to defend herself, not to mention the loss of her beloved husband of 50 years being overshadowed.
ReplyDeleteI am told that the Goodmans' auto parts business went up in flames under suspicious circumstances (possibly in the 1990s) and they received a substantial insurance payout. It's possible that Alan was murdered simply for the insurance money, either by his wife or an associate of hers. Alan's mind had been deteriorating for several years, but perhaps his body wasn't deteriorating rapidly enough for her liking.
ReplyDelete