Tennis umpire Lois “Lolo” Goodman was reinstated as a professional referee Friday in the wake of a decision by prosecutors to drop charges that she bludgeoned her husband to death, her attorney said Friday.
Goodman, a fixture on the U.S. Tennis Assn. circuit for a couple decades, had been sidelined since October following her arrest in New York on suspicion of killing her husband, Alan Goodman.
Last month, prosecutors decided to drop a murder charge against Lois Goodman without revealing their reasons. The move was made before her defense attorneys submitted a pathology report disputing coroner’s findings that her husband was deliberately killed and citing a heart attack as the cause of his death.
“This is a wonderful holiday gift for Lolo and her family,” said one of her attorneys, Kelly Gerner. “Lolo thanks the USTA for their prompt action and she wishes a happy holiday to her many friends and supporters.”
Goodman’s arrest in August made international headlines when police apprehended her in New York as she was on her way to referee qualifying matches for the U.S. Open.
Her lawyers said the USTA informed her Friday morning that they were lifting her suspension. Although prosecutors have dropped the charges, Ed Winter, deputy chief of coroner’s investigations, said Alan Goodman’s April 17 death remains listed as a homicide and it remains an open police case.
