Jun 14, 2004

Justice Delayed?

By JR Nerad

When Mickey Thompson was around the wheels turned faster and faster and faster.  In fact the hard-charging racecar driver turned racing promoter was once the fastest man on Earth.  He was the first to drive a car over 400 miles per hour, and before his racing career was over he held titles in drag racing, Indy car racing, sports car racing and off-road racing.  If there was ever a motorsports Renaissance Man, it was Mickey Thompson.  But in Thompson's case the wheels of justice have been very slow indeed.
 
In 1988 his life, and the life of his beloved wife Trudy, were cut short by assassins in the driveway of his suburban Los Angeles home.  And since that time, no one has been prosecuted for the crimes, although authorities suspected from the first day they were bought and paid for by another motorsports promoter, Michael Goodwin, who not only is regarded as the father of motorcycle Supercross racing but was also a business partner of Thompson's for a short and very acrimonious time.

More than a decade after the twin killings, Goodwin was charged with the murders in Orange County, California, where he resided at the time Thompson was killed.  But after more than 24 months of legal wrangling, those charges were dismissed when a California appeals court ruled that Orange County had no jurisdiction in the case.  Speculation was that Goodwin could be freed, and he and his legal team was quoted saying that justice was finally done, after a dozen years of living in the shadow of accusation in the case. 

But, instead of being freed from jail as many expected, Goodwin actually has a new jail address after Los Angeles County prosecutors charged him with two counts of murder this past week.  Goodwin, who has continued to protest his innocence, had pleaded not guilty in the Orange County and will do the same in Los Angeles, the county in which Thompson was killed. 

Previously Los Angeles prosecutors had declined to take the case, although most of the evidence was gathered by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide, and why they changed their minds and decided to prosecute remains a closely guarded secret.  Goodwin's defense attorney, Jeffrey Benice, has said he plans to file yet another request to dismiss the new charges.

"This is nothing more than a malicious prosecution," he told the Associated Press. "There's no evidence. There's no witnesses. There's nothing."

It will be interesting to see if the jury agrees.