A state parole panel has blocked the release of former LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus, reversing an earlier decision that could have freed her from a life sentence for the 1986 murder of her ex-boyfriend’s wife.
The three-member panel found good cause Wednesday to rescind last November’s parole recommendation to release Lazarus, 64, who spent 25 years with the Los Angeles police before being apprehended by her own colleagues in 2009.
It is the latest twist in a notorious murder case that rocked the Los Angeles Police Department. Lazarus could still be granted parole, and another hearing is scheduled in the coming months.
Gov. Gavin Newsom previously asked the California Board of Parole Hearings to review its plans to set free Lazarus, and in May the panel moved to further examine evidence in her case.
Announcing the board’s decision to rescind, Commissioner Julie Garland said a suitability hearing for Lazarus will be set within 120 days.
“We know that means another round of hearings for all of you, and I’m sure that is difficult for all of you, but it is what is required by the regulations we are bound by.” Garland said.
Lazarus had been on the police force more than two decades when LAPD homicide investigators reopened the cold-case murder of Sherri Rasmussen, a 29-year-old nursing director married to Lazarus’ ex-boyfriend.
Investigators initially suspected that Rasmussen, who was found badly beaten and shot three times in the chest, was killed during a burglary attempt. But in 2009, DNA testing on saliva from bite marks on her body linked Lazarus to the crime.
Three years later, Lazarus was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
Lazarus, who admitted to the killing in a hearing in November, told the panel she had been studying the bible and doing self-help classes since her arrest, including obtaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees in divinity studies.
“While I was in county jail, June 2009 to 2012, I began my rehabilitative process,” she said. “Today I have learned that I cannot control anyone but myself, and I am responsible for my decisions.”
Lazarus and the victim’s husband, John Ruetten, met as students at UCLA in the 1970s. Though the two dated casually for a few years after graduating, Ruetten testified at trial that he never considered Lazarus his girlfriend.
He later met Rasmussen, and they became engaged. Soon after, Ruetten said, he was confronted by Lazarus — who was then an LAPD patrol officer — who pleaded with him not to get married.
Ruetten and Rasmussen wed in 1985. The following year, Ruetten returned home from work to find her body.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Ruetten told the panel that Lazarus “has exercised her rights to the fullest but has never done the right thing.”
“This is not a typical criminal rehabilitation,” he said. “I am asking that this grant of parole be reversed.”
Teresa Lane, Rasmussen’s sister, told the panel her family had been dealing with the impact of the crime for nearly four decades.
“It took over 23 years for an arrest to be made,” Lane said. “My parents were relentless to find justice for my sister, especially my father. Once the arrest was made, my parents never missed a hearing or court date. If they were still with us they would be present today to fight for justice for Sherri.
“So my family and I are here to continue the journey. All my family wants is justice for my sister. If parole was to be granted this would be greatest injustice of all.”
Advocates for Lazarus — including several formerly incarcerated people, among them one who was wrongfully convicted — have lauded her leadership in prison education and religion programs. Her supporters say she has helped comfort dying inmates and bought books for others.
When Lazarus spoke about her crime last November, she told the parole board: “It makes me sick to this day that I took an oath to protect and serve people, and I took Sherri Rasmussen’s life from her, a nurse. All I could think about was getting out of there before the police showed up.”
Matthew McGough contributed to this report as a pool reporter.
