Tennis Line Judge’s Murder Case ‘Got Out of Hand,’ Attorney Says
Published at
ABC News(NEW YORK) — The attorney for the U.S. Open line judge accused of killing her husband with a broken coffee mug complimented Los Angeles prosecutors for standing up to police and getting the case — which he says “got out of hand” — tossed out.
A judge Friday dismissed the case against Lois Goodman, 70, and exonerated her bond. Alan Goodman, 80, died in April at his California home.
The line judge said she found her husband dead in bed, saying she believed he had crawled there to rest after a terrible fall. She said she was pleased when she learned on Friday that her case had been thrown out for lack of evidence.
“I was so happy. Elated. I can’t tell you,” Lois told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America Monday. “It came earlier than I thought it would, but I always knew, somehow, justice would be served, and my name would be cleared.”
Lois has always maintained her innocence, even passing a lie-detector test. She said her husband suffered a heart attack, and then fell down the stairs.
Her attorney Robert Sheahen told GMA that prosecutors had a “moral and ethical obligation” to dismiss the case against Goodman, and saw it through.
“The prosecutors did a great thing here,” he said. “DAs don’t stand up to the police department. They don’t dismiss these cases. For these prosecutors to dismiss this case, they did a good thing.”
“They dismissed it; more power to them. I give them all of the professional credit in the world. It got out of hand. The prosecutors corrected it,” Sheahen said.
Lois was arrested in August, days before the U.S. Open began, while wearing her referee uniform. Police alleged she bludgeoned her husband to death with a coffee mug in their Los Angeles home, and then stabbed him with the broken pieces.
The grandmother said that since she was arrested shortly after her husband’s death, she has had no time to grieve.
“I wasn’t there. Poor thing … I beat myself up all the time. If I had been at home, I could have helped him. But I wasn’t. It’s just hard for me to realize that he’s gone, I miss him,” she said.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio