Arrest for ‘Vision’ Was Faulty, Judge Rules

A Burbank woman whose “psychic vision” led detectives to the body of a murder victim was wrongly arrested, a judge ruled Thursday, saying that Los Angeles police lacked sufficient evidence to tie her to the killing.

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury will decide today what damages the woman, Etta Louise Smith, should be paid by the city for her four-day stint in jail, which she likened during the trial to being a “caged animal.”

Although the jury heard the entire trial, Judge Joel Rudof ruled that the question of whether police had probable cause to arrest Smith was a legal one, and he issued the verdict against the city.

Smith, 39, sued the Los Angeles Police Department, alleging that detectives lacked reasonable grounds to arrest her in 1980 on suspicion of murder after her “vision” led her to the body of a missing Sylmar nurse.

‘Tremendous Relief’

Smith’s attorney, James E. Blatt, said after Rudof’s verdict that his client feels as if she has finally been taken seriously.

“After 6 1/2 years, that’s a tremendous relief,” Blatt said.

Two days after the nurse’s highly publicized disappearance, Smith reported to police that she envisioned the woman’s body dumped in a rural area above Lake View Terrace, testimony in the seven-day trial revealed.

Within an hour after relating her vision to detectives, Smith, accompanied by two of her children and a niece, found the body and led police to it in Lopez Canyon.

Detectives doubted Smith’s story, and questioned her for about 10 hours before arresting her on suspicion of having murdered the nurse, Melanie L. Uribe, 31. Smith, then a Pacoima resident, was released four days later and was never charged.

Three men with no known connection to Smith eventually were convicted of the murder and are serving sentences of up to life in state prison.

Scare Tactic

Blatt argued that police never really believed that his client was involved in the beating death, but suspected that she may have learned of the body’s location through means other than a psychic vision. Detectives thought that a weekend in jail might scare Smith into divulging the true source, Blatt asserted.

At the time of Smith’s arrest, Blatt said, police had a witness who saw three men jump into Uribe’s truck and drive off with her screaming.

Even if Smith had no vision and learned of the crime site through the Pacoima neighborhood grapevine, police overstepped their bounds by jailing her on suspicion of murder, Blatt said.

“Finding a body is not a crime,” Blatt argued to the judge. “Having a vision . . . is not a crime. Having information about the murder itself is not a crime. Having information about the murder and not giving it to police is not a crime.

“It just isn’t there.”

Rudof agreed, saying: “Probable cause was not shown by the evidence.”

Assistant City Atty. Michael K. Fox argued that officers acted reasonably.

Confronted with a bizarre tale of a psychic vision, detectives believed that Smith could have known of the body’s location only if she were connected to the killing as an active participant, conspirator or accessory, Fox said.

‘Deceptive’ on Polygraph

Smith was also found to have been “deceptive” on a polygraph examination that she voluntarily took the evening before her arrest, Fox said.

But the city’s case appeared to have been weakened by the testimony of three current or former employees.

The polygraph examiner testified Thursday that he was unable to draw any strong conclusions from the test and recommended to detectives that Smith be retested when she was better rested. A second test was never administered, he said.

Two detectives who were involved in the investigation but did not participate in the arrest questioned Smith’s jailing.

Detectives’ Testimony

Retired Detective Lee M. Ryan testified that the arrest was a “miscarriage of justice,” and Anthony Guarino, who is still a detective, said he would have preferred to have had more time to investigate Smith’s story. Guarino said he was checking Smith’s alibi for the night of the nurse’s disappearance when he learned that she had been arrested.

Conspicuously absent from the trial was retired Capt. John Salvino, who, according to the other officers, ordered the arrest. Fox refused to say why Salvino did not testify.

Smith claims that she has suffered physical and emotional distress because of the arrest and has been hampered in her career. She is a shipping clerk at Lockheed Corp. in Burbank.

Her attorney would not say what damages he will seek from the jury.