Tennis Referee Murder Case Dismissed In California

Posted: November 30, 2012

Los Angeles, CA — Prosecutors have dropped the murder case against Lois Goodman, a tennis referee who was arrested in her husband’s death last summer.

Superior Court Judge Jessica Silvers dismissed the case after prosecutors said they had received additional information and were unable to proceed.

Sandi Gibbons, the district attorney’s spokesman, declined to elaborate on the new information that led to the dismissal.

Defense attorney Alison Triessl said she believed private polygraph tests conducted by a former FBI polygraph examiner were crucial in proving that the 70-year-old did not kill her husband.

“I feel I’m being treated fairly now. It was just a terrible accident,” Goodman said.

The case was dismissed without prejudice, which means it could be refiled in the future. Triessl, however, believes the case is over.

“We’re elated,” Triessl said. “This has been a living hell for her. Justice has been served. She did not do this.”

Goodman was accused of bludgeoning her 80-year-old husband to death with a coffee cup. She claimed she was innocent, and her lawyers suggested her husband, Alan Goodman, died in an accidental fall.

Defense private investigator Scott Ross said pathologist Michael Baden examined the coroner’s evidence and found that Alan Goodman died of a heart attack.

“His heart was four times the normal size,” Ross said.

Lois and Alan Goodman had been married for 50 years and had three adult daughters. They lived in the San Fernando Valley area their entire lives.

Alan Goodman died in April, and authorities initially believed he fell down the stairs while his wife was away. They later ruled it a homicide after a mortuary reported suspicious injuries on his head.

Goodman pleaded not guilty when she was arrested by Los Angeles police in New York in August when she arrived to be a line judge at the US Open. She made her first court appearance in her uniform.

“I definitely want to get back to refereeing,” Goodman said after the case was dismissed. “But first I want to call my close friends that supported me and thank them again and again.”