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U.S. Open judge accused of killing husband passes polygraph test

Lois Goodman appears in a Van Nuys courtroom earlier this year.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Lois Ann Goodman, the tennis judge arrested the day before this year’s U.S. Open and charged in her husband’s death, has passed a polygraph test in which she denied bludgeoning him with a coffee cup.

Goodman’s attorneys told Associated Press that they have emailed the results to the district attorney’s office and want prosecutors to consider dismissing charges against the 70-year-old woman.

“I’m hopeful that they are going to reassess their case,” Alison Triessl, one of Goodman’s attorneys, said in a phone interview with Associated Press. “The facts just don’t support that there was a murder. The results of the polygraph prove Lois Goodman did not kill her husband. He died in a freak accident.”

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A district attorney’s spokeswoman said the office will not comment until the material is brought up in court.

Goodman has pleaded not guilty to killing her 80-year-old husband, Alan Goodman, by beating him with a coffee cup and using its broken handle to stab him. She said he fell down the steps while holding a coffee cup, causing his fatal injuries.

Authorities initially believed he fell down the stairs but later decided it was homicide after a mortuary reported that the body had suspicious head injuries.

Lois Ann Goodman was arrested in August just before she was to referee a match at the U.S. Open in New York.

Triessl said the lie detector test was given by a well-known FBI-trained polygrapher, Jack Trimarco, who has administered more than 3,000 such exams, many in high-profile cases. His report was instrumental in getting charges dismissed against a man initially charged in the Bryan Stow-Dodger Stadium assault case.

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