february 6th, 2012, the people verse stephanie lazarus began in a courtroom in downtown los angeles. the prosecution laid out a clear case of how stephanie lazarus was deeply in love with john rutten and was devastated when he was engaged to sherry. then executed her and covered it up by staging a burglary. linda deutsche of the associated press covered the trial. the opening statement by the prosecutor was quite dramatic and he came up with the theme which was that the case was about a bite, a bullet, a gun barrel eand a broken heart and that resonated in the courtroom. the jury saw journals of stephanie s. stephanie s date book was introduced which mentioned
improperly stored and sealed which compromised the sample. the vial was protruding, instead of being inside the envelope, in order to protect the integrity of the evidence. you cannot rely on the scientific results. he said that hair, blood and fingerprints found at the crime scene did not come from lazarus. as for the weapon that fired the fatal shots? he insisted there werer several other types of guns besides stephanie s that could have fired those bullets. and as to motive. the defense argued there was no evidence that stephanie lazarus was obsessed with sherry s husband john. quite the opposite. john was still calling her. and stephanie went to tell sherry, look, you guys are getting married. i am telling him not to call me. after five weeks it was up to the jury. lorain et eti loretta and ne
well, i m, i was, i m just saying you know, do i need to get a lawyer? are you aaccusing me? it came to an end that must have been as familiar as uncomfortable. i know you will have to do your job, and i have to contact somebody. that s fair. i know how this stuff works. and then stephanie lazarus was read the same words she herself had read to hundreds of suspects over the years. stephanie, do you know you have the right to remain silent, do you understand? yes. and for just a moment, you can see the handcuffs placed on her by her fellow officers. i m in shock, i m totally in shock. word of lazarus s arrest traveled fast to tucson, where detective nutall was standing by to deliver the news to the rasmussen family. tell me what you said. you were right folks, you
a 23-year-older cold case they believed had finally been cracked. but the prime suspect worked right besides them. for the rasmussen family, stephanie s arrest was a vindication and it brought back their bitter memories of the original l.a.p.d. investigation. i think it was because she was a police officer so they just figured that they would cover this one up. the family hired a l.a. attorney john taylor that filed a lawsuit get detective lazarus andthe l.a.p.d. saying that think deliberately ignored claws that pointed to a fellow officer. the earlier missteps of l.a.p.d. were not missteps. they were intentional conduct and intentional ignoring of he was. and an intentional derreliction of dutiys, beyond being sloppy or lazy. the fact that they didn t close the case and that they
june 5th, twi2009, started routinely enough for lapd detective stephanie lazarus. she took the train to union station in downtown l.a., reporting for her normal shift that morning at police headquarters in parker center. after arriving, stephanie was told to meet with two detectives. men she didn t know from lapd s elite robbery-homicide division to help them interrogate a suspect involving some stolen artwork which was stephanie s beat as a detective. so lazarus went down to a secured area in the basement to meet with her two colleagues in a small interview room. because it s part of the jail, all cops who enter here are required to give up their guns. unarmed and unsuspecting,