Lois Goodman on dropped murder case: ‘Thank God it’s over’

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A few days after prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her, professional tennis umpire Lois Goodman said she is relieved her ordeal is over and she still doesn’t understand how she could have been accused of killing her husband of nearly 50 years.

In an interview with Matt Lauer on the ‘Today’ show on Monday morning, Goodman said the experience has been ‘unbelievable.’

She said she walked around ‘shaking my head no.’

‘I can’t understand how it even got that far. … Thank God it’s over,’ she said.

Goodman, 70, had pleaded not guilty to attacking her husband. She said she found him dead on April 17 at their Woodland Hills home. She told authorities she came home and found a bloody trail up the stairs to their bedroom. She believed he had fallen, then made his way to bed.

But three days later, a coroner’s investigator visited the mortuary to sign the death certificate. He reported ‘deep penetrating blunt force trauma’ on Alan Goodman’s head and ears. Those observations launched the homicide investigation.

Lauer noted that prosecutors said they couldn’t proceed with the case ‘at this time.’

But Goodman’s attorneys said they think their client can rest easy.

‘Minimally, there is reasonable doubt in everybody’s mind,’ defense attorney Robert Sheahen said. ‘In our mind, there’s factual innocence. End of story. Anybody who thinks that this case is going to be re-opened can go count votes with Karl Rove in Ohio.’

Lois Goodman said she was devoted to her husband and was not even given time to grieve.

‘ I don’t think they had anybody else to blame, so they came after me,’ she said.

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--Kimi Yoshino