Suspect in Murders Pleads Not Guilty in Fraud Case

The former business partner of murdered car-racing pioneer Mickey Thompson pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to charges that he concealed and transferred more than $500,000 in assets during federal bankruptcy proceedings.

Michael F. Goodwin, who law enforcement officials said has not been eliminated as a suspect in the 1988 murder of Thompson and his wife, Trudy, was ordered back to a federal cell in Los Angeles pending the posting of bail, which has been set at $850,000.

Even if he makes bail, U.S. Magistrate Elgin Edwards in Santa Ana ordered that Goodwin wear an electronic monitoring device and live nearby.

Prosecutors argued unsuccessfully that Goodwin should be held without bail because he previously fled the United States amid problems brought on by a lawsuit.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Wiech read to the court excerpts from letters Goodwin had written while in the Caribbean. He wrote that he would rather be a “sailing bum outside the U.S.” than deal with the financial and legal disputes that put him at odds with Thompson in their former partnership in the promotion of auto racing.

In a separate hearing Friday, Goodwin’s former wife, Diane Seidel, who lives in Florida but plans to move to Virginia, also pleaded not guilty to the same charges and was released on a promise that her brother would pay $50,000 in bail by July 23. Seidel surrendered to authorities Friday after flying to Los Angeles from Florida.

Goodwin and Seidel went to the Caribbean on a 57-foot yacht two weeks after the March 16, 1988, murders. Thompson and his wife were leaving their home in Bradbury that morning when two young men shot them to death.