Alan Goodman
BACK-HANDED: Lois Ann “Lolo” Goodman, 70, is arrested by NYPD cops yesterday for allegedly killing her 80-year-old husband with a coffee mug back in LA. (
)
A feisty 70-year-old US Open ump who has crossed swords with tennis legends John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors was busted at her Midtown hotel yesterday for allegedly killing her 80-year-old husband with a coffee mug back in Los Angeles.
Pint-sized redhead Lois Ann “Lolo’’ Goodman was wearing her official Open togs — a blue Ralph Lauren sweatsuit and sneakers — when NYPD cops nabbed her around 8 a.m. in the lobby of the New York Sheraton before she could catch a shuttle to Flushing Meadows.
“She was surprised,” an LAPD source told The Post.
The mom of three daughters had been sparring with her husband, Alan, for weeks when she snapped April 17 — allegedly smashing him over the head with the mug and then stabbing him with a shattered piece of it.
“There was blood everywhere,’’ a source said.
The courtside curmudgeon had claimed that she came home after umping an amateur tennis match “and found her husband dead,’’ the LAPD source said.
But “there was a lot of blood inside the apartment, and there was no sign of forced entry. Obviously, he was killed by someone who knew him and had a key.”
“She has always been very cool, calm and collected,’’ the source noted.
Cops were suspicious from the start, but it wasn’t until Aug. 2 that Alan Goodman’s death was declared a homicide and his wife of decades became the prime suspect.
A groundskeeper at the couple’s gated community, Alfonso Rosas, told The Post that “two or three times, the police had been over [to the couple’s apartment] in the past of couple of weeks.”
“The wife, afterwards, she would cry. One time, she was fighting with the police and screamed at them,’’ he said.
Next-door neighbor Adriana Rudchenko told the LA Daily News, “One time, when I saw [Lois] in front of our garage while her husband was taking out the trash, she told me, ‘He’s driving me crazy.’ ”
After former auto-parts salesman Alan was found dead, Lois “called a cleaning crew to deal with the carpets that were messed up with blood. She . . . didn’t seem at all upset,” said Rudchenko’s husband, Michael.
A warrant for Lois Goodman’s arrest was finally issued Aug. 14 but she already on her way to New York City to work the Open, which has qualifying rounds this week, sources said.
She was arraigned on a murder rap in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday and waived extradition.
Public defender Allen Farbman told the judge, “She wants . . . to go back to California to fight this case. She does not want to stay here and probably languish in jail.’’
Goodman has refereed matches involving the sport’s biggest stars and has worked the US Open and Australian Open for years.
In a 1994 interview with the LA Times, she said she’d fought with McEnroe and Andre Agassi and had been the target of sexist remarks by Connors over the years, but “you just can’t let anything bother you.”
“And you can’t take anything personally. If you do, you’re in big trouble,” she said.
The groundskeeper, Rosas, said Alan was friendly and fit, although he seemed to be ailing lately.
As for Lois Goodman, Rosas said, “She was small and fat. I’m surprised she was an athlete.’’
Inside her garage was a red Toyota Prius with “handicapped” plates and a frame around the license plate that said, “Verbally Abused Tennis Umpire.’’
Additional reporting by Antonio Antenucci, Helen Kumari and Kate Sheehy