US Open Tennis Referee Murder Case Dismissed - East Idaho News
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US Open Tennis Referee Murder Case Dismissed

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lois goodman 4 jt 121201 wblog?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1354390337850ABC News(LOS ANGELES) — It was a moment of vindication for Lois Goodman as she cut off the police monitoring bracelet she wore after charges were dropped against the 70-year-old tennis referee who was accused of bludgeoning her husband to death.

“I’ve always maintained my innocence. I’m just thrilled to get back to my life,” Goodman said outside of court on Friday, shortly after the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office announced it had dropped the charges against Goodman.

“Based upon the info we have at this time, we are announcing we are unable to proceed,” said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Alan Goodman, 80, died in April at his California home. The referee said she found her husband dead in bed, saying she believed he had crawled there to rest after a terrible fall.

Investigators initially believed Alan Goodman had fallen down the stairs, but later classified the death as a homicide after suspicious head injuries were reported.

In August, shortly before she was scheduled to oversee a match at the U.S. Open, Lois Goodman, who was in uniform, was arrested in New York City.

Prosecutors said they believed the 70-year-old left her husband for dead in April, while going off to a tennis match and to get a manicure.

Through it all, Goodman maintained her innocence and insisted her husband died after he fell down the stairs and hit his head on a coffee cup.

“My mother would never do something like this ever, not in a million years,” Goodman’s daughter Allison Rogers said. “She’s completely innocent.”

The defense hired a polygraph expert, Jack Trimarco, to administer a lie detector test to Goodman.

He concluded the longtime referee is an “innocent woman.”

“I asked, ‘Did you kill Alan Goodman?’ And ‘At your residence, did you kill your husband?’” he said. “There was no physiological reaction attached to those answers that she gave, which were no.”

It’s possible charges could be brought against Goodman in the future, but for now, she’s reveling in her freedom, her attorney Allison Triess said.

“It’s an amazing day for justice,” she said. “And Ms. Goodman has gone through hell with this case.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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