So Far, His Trial Is a Test of Patience

It was an anniversary phone call from Michael Goodwin, and he didn’t sound happy. Most double-murder suspects who have sat in jail for two years awaiting trial aren’t.

“I don’t want people to think I’m scared of going to trial,” says Goodwin, whom Orange County prosecutors hope to convict for the 1988 murders of Goodwin’s former business partner Mickey Thompson and Thompson’s wife, Trudy. “No matter what happens, till my name is vindicated, I’ll never quit. I’m stronger than ever on that,” he says.

But Goodwin and his legal team don’t mind saying they are scared of what could happen in a trial -- if only because trials are unpredictable and Goodwin’s team is angrily suspicious of the investigation of him.

“We can go through every one of the allegations that are of a material nature and prove that every one of them are fabricated,” Goodwin says, directing most of his wrath at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department investigator who he says has either misrepresented or lied about key aspects of the case.

Juries sort out things like that, but there’s a decent chance Goodwin will never go to trial. A state appeals court is considering his challenge to Orange County’s jurisdiction in trying Goodwin for the murders, which occurred in Los Angeles County. The L.A. County district attorney never showed any interest in prosecuting.

So far, the appeals court has appeared skeptical of the contention that Orange County has jurisdiction. Still, the court has stretched its deliberations out for more than a year. It is scheduled to rule in February; if it sides with Goodwin, the case would be dismissed.

Goodwin says he’s being unfairly prosecuted and blames it on the long-standing friendship between O.C. Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and Collene Campbell, Mickey Thompson’s sister.

The prosecutors’ credibility was weakened in April when they had to tell the court that ballistics tests had eliminated a key argument in seeking jurisdiction -- that Goodwin had provided the murder weapon to the killers.

Goodwin’s appeals court lawyer says he’s baffled by Orange County’s insistence in pressing the case. “The very way they’re conducting themselves is unlike any case I’ve handled with them in the past,” Jeffrey Friedman says. “They’re usually pretty darn straightforward in giving you discovery in a timely and orderly fashion, and they could not be more out of character in this case.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Mulgrew isn’t in charge of discovery, but he is Friedman’s opposite number before the appellate justices. He has argued, in essence, that local jurisdiction is justified both because of things Goodwin did before the murders from his then-Laguna Beach residence and because the Thompsons’ deaths affected Goodwin’s business dealings here.

The court will decide that -- someday.

My guess is the court has taken this long because it is reluctant to dismiss a double-murder case before it gets to trial.

Meantime, Goodwin has spent two years in jail and muses about “sitting here rotting away.”

Friedman describes the case as “so incredibly flimsy it’s virtually not visible to the naked eye,” yet tries to ensure it never goes to court.

“When you ask for a stay, you’re thinking it will be resolved in 90 days,” Friedman says. “It’s now been 14 months, because it’s been stayed -- at my request, I have to concede. Nothing has happened, but Goodwin has sat in jail with his health deteriorating while we wait.”

Mulgrew isn’t sympathizing. “That’s the irony,” he says. “They claim they want to go to trial, but by filing this writ, the trial has been delayed for over a year. We’re ready to try it whenever the court gives us the green light.”

*

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821, at [email protected] or at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.