Ex-Suspect in Killing of Husband in Woodland Hills Home Sues LAPD, Coroner for Malicious Prosecution

A U.S. Open tennis referee who was charged -- then cleared -- of the coffee-mug bludgeoning death of her husband at their Woodland Hills home sued Los Angeles police and the county Coroner's Office, alleging authorities orchestrated a "media circus" to bolster a malicious prosecution.

In her federal court lawsuit, Lois Goodman, 70, seeks unspecified damages for allegations of false arrest, civil rights violations, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Los Angeles Police Department officials had no immediate response to the lawsuit.

According to the 21-page complaint, filed Wednesday, Goodman arrived home April 17, 2012, to find her 80-year-old husband, Alan Goodman, lying dead across their bed.

"A shattered coffee mug was on the landing of the stairway leading upstairs to the bedroom and there was a trail of blood on the banister of the stairway," according to the lawsuit. "There was a blood smear near the floor of the landing but there was no spatter of blood on the walls near the landing. There was some blood in the kitchen, as well."

Goodman told responding police and fire personnel that she believed he had fallen, then made his way up to the bedroom.

"At the time of his death, Mr. Goodman was legally blind and had colon cancer," according to the lawsuit. "He had a long history of high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and insulin-dependent diabetes. He also had a history of failing to take his medication."

The initial police report listed the probable cause of death as "accidental/head injury," according to the complaint.

But days later, a coroner's investigator reported he suspected Goodman's husband had suffered "blunt force trauma" on his head and ears, and a homicide investigation began.

LAPD detectives "fixated on what they considered to be Mrs. Goodman's lack of emotional display over the death of her 80-year-old husband," the suit contends, and police "repeatedly noted in their interview reports that Mrs. Goodman's 'makeup was not running."'

The murder investigation went forward even though police "knew or should have known that it was physically impossible for Mrs. Goodman to kill her husband with a coffee mug. They knew, in fact, that he was not killed with a coffee mug, and they knew that it would have been physically impossible for Mrs. Goodman to have carried her 180-pound husband from the stairway to their bedroom," according to the lawsuit.

"Indeed, being detectives, LAPD defendants must have known it would have made no sense for someone who intended a death to appear as if it were caused by an accidental fall down a stairway to make the Herculean effort to move the body upstairs," the lawsuit alleges.

Goodman was arrested in August in New York on the eve of a U.S. Open tournament, and charged in Los Angeles with first-degree murder.

A day later, LAPD Detective David Peteque, who is a defendant in the lawsuit, appeared on "Good Morning America" and gave alleged details of the case, plaintiff's attorney Robert Sheahen said.

"He told a national television audience that Mr. Goodman did not fall down the stairs, but was a victim of homicide and that Mrs. Goodman was in jail for committing a homicide," the lawsuit states.

"It was outrageous," Sheahen said. "The LAPD orchestrated a media circus around this case."

Defense attorneys later revealed that the umpire's DNA wasn't found on the coffee mug. Goodman also passed a polygraph test conducted by a former FBI examiner that was arranged by her attorneys, according to the suit.

Goodman was held at the Van Nuys jail before being released on house arrest under electronic monitoring.

"From August to December 2012, defendants subjected Mrs.Goodman to extensive public humiliation and caused her to incur substantial legal expenses," according to the lawsuit.

With little explanation, the district attorney's office asked a judge to drop the murder charge against Goodman. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can choose to refile charges at a later date.

"Since then, LAPD defendants have continued to claim that Mrs. Goodman is still a 'suspect,'" according to the complaint.

The lawsuit claims Goodman has incurred more than $100,000 in legal expenses from the arrest, which she paid for by liquidating her accounts, borrowing money from friends and family members, and selling her car and jewelry.

Prior to the arrest, Goodman was employed as a tennis referee and judged matches throughout the country, the suit states.

"As a result of defendants' actions, Mrs. Goodman was suspended for five months and suffered professional obloquy," the complaint contends. "When she was reinstated after the dismissal of the charges, she continued to suffer professionally -- receiving assignments which were of lower rank than those she previously received.

"Her relationships with professional colleagues became strained and uncomfortable because of the international publicity which hounded her for months," the suit states.    

-City News Service