Not-Guilty Plea in Shooting : Woman Accused of Attempted Murder of Alleged Rapist

Elizabeth Gooden, the Los Angeles woman who police say shot a neighbor eight times after the district attorney’s office refused to prosecute him for allegedly raping her, pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of attempted murder.

At her arraignment before Los Angeles Municipal Judge Glenette Blackwell, Gooden, 26, listened impassively. Similar charges against her brother, LeRoy, 31, who, according to police, took the gun from Gooden after the shooting Tuesday night, were dropped earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, the victim, Wilson Picquet, 38, a school bus driver, remained in serious condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Blackwell set bail at $25,000 for Gooden, who is unemployed, and scheduled a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court for Aug. 8.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Norm Shapiro told the judge that he did not expect a long preliminary hearing.

“It’s no secret what happened,” he told reporters after the court proceeding, pointing out that there were at least three eyewitnesses to the shooting outside the apartment building on Coco Avenue in the Crenshaw District where Gooden, her brother and Picquet live.

Shapiro added that, regardless of the motive Gooden may have had for shooting Picquet, “this was a premeditated shooting. As far as the law is concerned, this is not a justified situation.”

The prosecutor noted that, according to police reports, Gooden was waiting for Picquet outside the apartment building when Picquet returned home Tuesday night after his release from jail, where he had been held for investigation of rape.

Witnesses told police that Gooden shot Picquet in the chest at point-blank range and, after he fell, shot him seven more times.

The prosecutor added that the rape allegation “does not excuse what she did.”

Shapiro said that a central issue in the case is whether a victim is justified in shooting her attacker, even after days have passed and the authorities have intervened.

Deputy Public Defender Robert J. LaBau, who represented Gooden on Thursday, declined to comment on the case or on Gooden’s account of what happened.

Before the shooting, Gooden had expressed frustration and disapointment to police and to neighbors over the refusal of the district attorney’s office to file charges against Picquet, whom Gooden accused of raping her at his apartment last Friday morning.

The district attorney’s office concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to file the rape charges.