written, stephanie l, po, as police officer. as her name had come up but not as a suspect. she seemed to be someone above suspicion. stephanie ilene lazarus grew up in southern california, a tom boy of sorts. loved sports. she attended ucla where she played basketball. it was during her college days that she met and dated john rutten, before and sherry got married. after graduating, lazarus surprised her family by joining the l.a.p.d., this when only a handful of women entered the force. i don t think had that i knew she was applying. reporter: stephanie s brother, steven. i was proud of steph. i thought it was a cool thing. reporter: stephanie lazarus quickly rose through the ranks of the l.a.p.d., she was popular. friendly and well regarded. her assignments also included
didn t listen to the family, those two things are not evidence of a cover up. it was not that they didn t close the case. they didn t do anything to create a case. he said that in 1986, the detectives were protecting stephanie lazarus. they actively covered up the identity of the person who committed the crime. the rasmussen s lawsuit alleging a cover up was dismittdismitt was dismissed in 2011. i can accept somebody that is unable to solve a crime that is solvable. i cannot accept somebody be that covers up a crime or covers up an individual that committed a crime and i have no indication that that happened here. there s nothing to suggest that they deliberated looked away from stephanie or that was a road they didn t want to go down. i think it was lack of ability not an intentional act to exclude stephanie. stephanie lazarus
Transcripts for MSNBC Dateline 20190922 07:43:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
guys are bringing up all the old memories. detectives turned up the heat. did you have a fight with her? did i fight? yeah, did you duke it out with her. you would remember that, that would be pretty yeah, i would think so. most of us can remember without difficulty the number of fist fights we have had in the course of our lives. at one point she answers know when asked if she remembers attacking sherry or being attacked and then another point does not recall. it does not sound familiar, so, i fought with her, so, now i, i, i, i am getting the jump. they say, look, i must have killed her. i mean, come on. after about 45 minutes, lazarus realized she was the prime suspect in sherry s murder. now, you are accusing me of this? is that what you are saying? we are trying figure out what happened, stephanie.
in february of 2012, nearly 26 years to the day since sherry rasmussen s murder, stephanie lazarus would have her day in court. a chance to clear her name and reputation. a chance to show that dna evidence is not always right, and that the los angeles police department had it all wrong. coming up. did the l.a.p.d. have it wrong? john was still calling. and stephanie went to tell sherry look, you guys are getting married. i told him not to call me. we the jury in the above entitled action find stephanie ilene lazarus when dateline continues. and live your lives. that s why we redesigned humira. we wanted to make the experience better for you.