Stephanie Lazarus

This case took place in the Los Angeles area during what is basically known as the Daryl Gates era. Daryl Gates was the chief of police for the LAPD from 1978 to 1992. I will have to write another blog at some point just going through that era to fully explain what this means. I attempted to do that here and found myself on a tangent that lasted several pages and I still had not mentioned Stephanie Lazarus or the crime she was convicted of committing. With that said let me just sum up the Gates era as being one in which the officers of LAPD were encouraged to engage in police brutality and have little to do with members of the general community. Gates was known for his racist and arrogant comments and personality and it was said encouraged the officers under him to do the same. The Blue Code of Silence was likely never more prominent than it was during this era. It is this code that many people believe allowed Stephanie Lazarus to nearly get away with murder. It should also be noted that while the LAPD employees literally employs thousands of officers and my research never indicated that Stephanie Lazarus and Daryl Gates were necessarily acquainted, it was also determined that Gates all but “invented” the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program and Lazarus was very much involved in those endeavors. So, my point here is that it would appear that Lazarus was a “star” officer. In 1986 she was a parole officer, by 1993 (in fairness Gates was now gone) she was a detective and by 2009 she was one of only two officers in the department that worked on cases that involved the theft of “high-priced” art. It seems likely that the only thing that would have held her back from being Gates' “right hand man” was the fact that she was a woman. And to be fair to Lazarus, being a woman officer in one of the, if not the, largest police officer community in the 1980's could not have been easy. Do you guys remember the story of Laurie “Bambi” Bemenek (another case I need to blog about some day)? I am sure the prejudice that Bemenek faced when she was a police officer in Milwaukee was likely some of what Lazarus faced during that same time period. However, especially as time went on, it appears that Stephanie Lazarus fit right in and that Blue Code of Silence worked well in her favor.

Stephanie Lazarus and John Ruetten met when they were in college. They dated off and on it seems for a few years. However, it appears that each of them looked at the relationship differently. From John's perspective he never considered Stephanie to be his girlfriend. It seems that the way he described it they hung out as friends some but their “relationship” consisted mainly of sexual encounters. Stephanie on the other hand apparently did not feel the same. She would claim that she did not know John dated other women during that time and she was completely infatuated with him. It seems by most accounts that for the most part by the time John met Sherri Rasmussen in 1984 the relationship with Stephanie had severely waned. However, according to John soon after he and Sherri became engaged he heard from Stephanie again. His story is he went to visit her and was completely taken aback that she seemed so distraught over his upcoming marriage because he claims they had not seen each other in about a year. However, while he was there he claims that she “begged” him to have sex with her and well, he did. He would later say that he had done so basically to “give her closure” and to calm her down. But, soon after Stephanie, who had joined the LAPD right out of college, discovered where Sherri worked as the Director of Nursing at a medical center and paid her a visit. During this visit Stephanie was all too eager to let Sherri know about her recent encounter with John and allegedly told her the age old phrase “If I can't have him, no one else will.” Of course Sherri was distraught and confronted John with Stephanie's accusations. He claims that he admitted what had happened, told Sherri his side of things, insisted it was over with Stephanie and begged her not to call off their wedding.

There are questions as to whether John was really as naive as he claimed to be about Stephanie's intentions or if he had strung Stephanie along. Personally, and while this may sound sexist, I truly believe a lot of it boiled down to men and women and how they look at things and think. I really do believe that John did not see Stephanie as a girlfriend or the relationship as being very serious. I think he saw her as a “friend with benefits” as we say. On the other hand I believe Stephanie saw the relationship for more than what it was and doing as we women often do she was never clear with him that was how she felt. She likely just assumed that she had given him enough “clues” to “get it.” But, considering what would happen later I also have to look at this relationship in another way. It may have been that John was completely clear with Stephanie, and it is entirely possible that Stephanie had always felt the same way about the relationship, right up until the time in which he got engaged to Sherri and she was no longer going to have control over the situation. There was no indication that she was dating anyone else at the time so she too was losing her “friend with benefits” without someone to fill that need like John had with Sherri. I get the very distinct impression that Stephanie was very manipulative and controlling, and maybe she needed to be to help her in her line of work especially considering she was a woman in a man's world. But in every day life those traits are not particularly attractive. I have to consider the fact that Stephanie had gotten John to come to her home and to have sex with her solely so that she could go and tell Sherri and get back the control she thought she was losing. I am sure she was convinced that by telling Sherri the relationship would end and she would be back in the “drivers seat” so to say.

Sherri accepted John's explanation and apology and the two were married in November of 1985. But, marriage did not stop Stephanie. John, in all his “male” wisdom, was convinced that Stephanie had accepted things and they were “just friends.” So when Stephanie showed up at their home carrying her skis, dressed in her tight workout clothes, asking John if he would wax them for her he could not understand Sherri's anger at the situation. While Sherri asked him to tell Stephanie “no” he assured her again they were just friends and agreed to wax the skis. Sherri would tell her parents about this situation and added that a few days when she returned to pick up the skis while John was at work Stephanie was dressed in her full work uniform and armed. Sometime in early February of 1986 she would also tell her father that Stephanie was “stalking her on the street.” It was never really made clear what she meant by that.

Then came the morning of February 24, 1986. John, who worked at an engineering firm, left their Van Nuys home between seven and seven-thirty. He would later say that when he left Sherri was still in bed and was talking about calling off work that day. She was required to teach some sort of class periodically and it was something she did not enjoy and told John felt was unproductive. Around 9:45 that morning a neighbor noticed that the garage door at the Ruetten home was open but no cars were visible. John says that at around 10:00 he called the home and did not get an answer or the answering machine. They were in the habit of turning the machine on when they were both going to be gone but he said later he was not super concerned because Sherri had forgotten from time to time. He tried calling her office and was told by her secretary that she had not seen Sherri. But, again, there was little concern because the secretary stated that on the days that she taught the class she often did not see her. One thing I found interesting in my research is that I found nothing that stated whether Sherri actually called into work that morning to inform anyone that she would not be there. I find this interesting because it could have given a better timeline as to the events that would later happen. Around noon a neighbor stated that two men, she thought to be gardeners in their gated community of condominiums, came up to her and her husband and stated they had found a purse. It was Sherri Rasmussen's purse (to be fair none of my research indicated she changed her name when she married). I found no other information on this and what the neighbor did or planned to do with the purse so I can only assume since the garage door was still open and no cars were at the home they figured they would wait until they saw her. A maid at a nearby condo was cleaning and would tell investigators later that around 12:30 that afternoon she had heard two people fighting and then heard something fall but she thought little of it at the time.

When John returned home around six that evening he was first perplexed to see the garage door open. Sherri's BMW was not in the garage. Then when he got out of his vehicle he noticed broken glass in the driveway. He thought maybe Sherri had hit something. She had apparently done that recently and broke a mirror on her car... maybe she did it again. It was not until he got to the door leading to their home from the garage that he became worried. The door was slightly ajar. John would find Sherri on the floor of their front room in her nightgown and robe (apparently the one she had been wearing when he left that morning). He ran to her and knew as he got closer that she was not alive. Her face had been severely beaten and she had gunshot wounds to her chest. He immediately called 911.

The condition of the home was not necessarily “ransacked” as you would see in a robbery, and many things of value were not only left in the home but clearly visible, but one could tell that a struggle had taken place and most believe that it was a long struggled that last several minutes, if not longer. There were broken items around the room. There was a bloody hand print near the burglar alarm's panic button indicating that at some point Sherri tried to reach it. Only a few things seemed to be missing like Sherri's car, obviously her purse (which they did not yet know the neighbor had) and strangely the couple's marriage license. There was a quilt laying next to Sherri's body and it was obvious that it had been used to muffle the gunshots. Her vehicle was found about a week later (I could not determine where) but it was said that no new evidence was discovered.

Sherri's body was taken to the coroner's office. She had been severely beaten and had suffered three gunshot wounds to her check made at close range. She also had a bite mark on her arm. The coroner took a swab of the bite mark and in the end it was this swab that would solve this case more than two decades later. Keep in mind that DNA was not available in 1986 but it was a period in which investigators felt it may be soon in the future and attempted to preserve more evidence. It was also said that impressions of the bite mark were also noted and photographed. It was customary that after the coroner had finished their job that the evidence, notes and information were given to officers and placed in a file. A strict chain of evidence was allegedly to be followed.

Meanwhile the investigators seemed to clear John Ruetten fairly quickly. They asked him if either he or Sherri had a past relationship that had ended badly and possibly had a vindictive ex in the picture but he did not believe so. He would later say that he never even considered Stephanie at the time. It appears before investigators even got too many more people interviewed they had decided that Sherri had been a victim of a botched burglary. There had been several lately in the area, although it is not clear if those occurred in this same gated community, and although the perpetrators had not been found they still believe that to be the case in Sherri's murder. They believed that she had come downstairs and caught them in the act, there was a struggle and she was shot. Well, at least that is what they were saying out loud to the family and public, and officially put in a report. Whether they believed that to be the truth for sure is unclear.

Sherri's parents were very quick to bring up Stephanie Lazarus' name as being a potential suspect. They would say that they told the lead detective on the case, Lyle Mayer about her and he took note of it. However, years later Mayer would claim that he had never discussed Stephanie Lazarus with the Rasmussen's. Sherri's father in particular would not let it go and kept hounding investigators over the years. At one point he had written a letter to Daryl Gates about Stephanie's possible involvement and afterwards he was contacted by a detective who told him the “watched too much television.”

No one ever clearly knows if Stephanie Lazarus was ever questioned in 1986 about Sherri's murder. The investigators did not need to go just on the word of her parents to be suspicious of her. They also had co-workers and others who spoke of the issues with Stephanie but more importantly it had been determined that the bullets that had killed Sherri were “Federal +P” ammo from a .38 caliber gun. Now, I have said it before and I am sure this will not be the last time you hear it, I am no expert on guns or anything that has to do with them. What I can tell you is this.... apparently not all guns can use this type of ammo, but is, or at least in 1986 was required that all officers use this, even in their off-duty weapons. I have not been able to determine if, especially in 1986, any Joe Blow off the street could buy this type of ammo and if they could how commonly it was purchased. But, in my opinion this should have at least been enough to question Lazarus.

Due to a lot of things, including the high crime going on in L.A. during that time, the Sherri Rasmussen case went cold. In the meantime Stephanie Lazarus was moving her way up in the ranks, but not before she and John Ruetten would “briefly reunite” in 1989. Whether Detective Lyle Mayer admitted it or John Ruetten would later claim it, allegedly John called Lyle Mayer and asked if he was sure that there was no evidence linking Stephanie to the crime and Mayer reassured him there was not. Obviously John had heard the rumors. For his part it was said that soon after the murder John had quit his job and moved away so just where he was living in 1989 was unclear. But again, the relationship did not work out. Eventually both John and Stephanie would marry other people. Stephanie would marry a fellow officer (who strangely I never found his name) and adopt a child. In 1993 she became a detective. By 2009 she was one of only two detectives working in the art theft division, something apparently very prominent in the L.A area. She had been with the department for nearly twenty-five years.

A new set of detectives started looking into the case around 2004/2005. The file looked a little odd to those now working on the case. They were hearing information about Stephanie Lazarus, especially from her parents but there seemed to be little to nothing in the file regarding her. It would later be alleged that officers, not likely Stephanie herself, had removed anything that seemed to point to her. But, it was discovered that the coroner either accidentally, or on purpose had not sent the swab he had taken from the bite mark on Sherri's body to the other detectives and it had remained in the coroner's lab in the back of a refrigerator. It was ran for DNA in 2004 and while a match was not found through CODIS, it was determined to have come from a female. The new detectives believed that underminded the burglary theory that the original detectives had determined. It is not that it was impossible that a woman had committed a burglary during the day at the home but burglaries are most commonly committed by men. There was a mention in the file of a “third party female” but no name was given. When the new detectives started asking questions they learned that this phrase was referring to Stephanie Lazarus but they were firmly told that Stephanie was not involved and the case seemed to be all but ordered to be closed once again.

It was not until 2009 that again a new set of detectives were put on the case. They quickly discovered that Stephanie Lazarus should have been considered a suspect but they also knew they were walking a thin line in investigating her. They decided that when it came to issues surrounding her, they needed to be very quiet and very careful. They did not want to tip her, or any of her friends in the department off. Like the previous detectives they also believed that the burglary theory was not believable and began their investigation from scratch. Knowing that the DNA belonged to a woman they narrowed their suspect list down to five females. At least one of those was a co-worker who had had issues with Sherri in the past, but this time Stephanie Lazarus was on that list. Even the investigators would later say that while she was on the list of suspects they initially thought she was the least likely to be the perpetrator. Finally they had eliminated everyone, but Stephanie.

Over the course of their investigation they learned that two weeks after Sherri had been murdered Stephanie Lazarus had reported that her Smith & Wesson .38 caliber gun had been stolen when she was in Santa Monica and had reported it to that police department. They found it interesting that she had not reported it in her own department but then again that could have brought an investigation or pressing eyes upon her. Seeing as there was a popular pier in the area in which she reported the gun stolen they theorized that she had likely thrown the gun into the Pacific Ocean. They did however note that the gun that she reported stolen was the same caliber gun that had been used to shoot Sherri and as protocol required, would have been able to use the +P ammo. Finally detectives decided to covertly get a sample of Stephanie's DNA. If you watch enough of the true crime dramas you know that officers can obtain anything they want out of trash without a warrant. So, they apparently tailed Stephanie and obtained a paper cup she had discarded at some point. It was sent to a lab to be tested and a match was found to the swab that had been taken from Sherri's body.

At this point investigators had to involve more people because they felt they needed to carefully plan her arrest. A search warrant was signed by a judge and on the early of June 5, 2009 a team of detectives waited in the wings near her home. Stephanie had gone to work that day and one of the detectives working the case contacted her telling her he had a suspect in custody that she should talk to regarding an issue with an art theft. The detective picked this area because as officers entered the area they were required to check their weapons at the desk. This was done and then the detective led Stephanie to an interrogation room to meet up with his partner.

Once inside the interrogation room Stephanie all but knew she had been “duped” since there was no one there for her to talk to and it was obvious the two detectives wanted to talk to her. The interview was taped and it appears that for the most part she and the two detectives tried to keep at least keep things civil between them. The detectives knew they had to be careful because they were interviewing another detective who knew all the tactics to use. As is often the case when it comes to murderers, it would be their own words that would later come back to bite them, and Stephanie Lazarus was no different. She was first asked about John Ruetten. At first she pretended to not know who the detectives were talking about because he had pronounced John's last name wrong. Then she suddenly remembered him and she “thought” they may have dated back in college.... she thought she heard he had gotten married... she even thought she remembered hearing that his wife had been murdered several years ago. But, she was never certain about anything because “it was so long ago.” At first she denied knowing where John and Sherri lived, then she “remembered.” The same was true when asked if she knew where Sherri worked and had ever been there. She did this to nearly everything the detectives asked. Finally, as her frustration grew she decided to end the interview. As she walked out the door she was met by more officers who would arrest her and charge her with first degree murder. In the meantime the detectives who had been near her home had been given the go ahead to serve the warrant to search her home and vehicles.

There was not a bail hearing for Stephanie Lazarus for six months. And then when there was one everyone was astonished at the ruling the judge made. It was ordered that she be held on a ten million dollar bond. This was definitely way higher than the defense had wanted but was even twice as much as the prosecution had asked for. Something that seemed strange to me is that everything states she was arrested in June and that the bail hearing did not happen for six months but her 2015 appeal stated she was not charged until December 18^th which indicates that she was not charged until the bail hearing but all indications are that she was in jail all that time.

The biggest thing obviously that the prosecution had at Stephanie's March 2012 trial was the DNA from the bite mark. The defense would argue that the DNA was contaminated and could not be reliable. There really was no proof of this however. Stephanie's brother would later say after the trial that the envelope that contained the swab had been torn but again there is no proof of this and it was said that the sample had been in the same area for twenty plus years. The prosecution argued that the motive was obviously Stephanie's obsession with John and wanting him for herself. The defense argued that there was no attempt by Stephanie to reach out to John after the murder, hence in their opinion disproving the prosecution theory. I agree with this theory if the argument is that she wanted John to herself. However, if we look at it in the way that she murdered Sherri, not to get John to herself but to hurt him then her not reaching out to him would make sense. To add to this in Stephanie's mind she could have murdered Sherri and expected John to reach out to her, if not for comfort at a personal level then on a professional level to see if she could get any information on the case. Sometimes people that do things like that do not care why the other person contacts them, just that they contact them.

John got on the stand and described his relationship with Stephanie, at least from his perspective. During his testimony when he discussed Stephanie and his feelings, or lack of them for her he was calm and collected. However, whenever he discussed Sherri and their relationship, as well as how he had found her, he would cry and be upset. I am sure this likely bothered Stephanie sitting at the defense table. He showed little to no emotion when it came to her but after all these years he still showed he loved Sherri. I thought the defense strategy with John was odd. While they had argued that Stephanie was innocent and had not contacted John after the murder, they challenged him on how serious the relationship had been between him and Stephanie. At one point they asked him how many women over the years he had taken to meet his family. Stephanie had been one of those women and there were pictures of her on an outing with them. In my opinion it was odd that they were pushing that the relationship was more involved than John was portraying because had they left that alone and let the jury at least attempt to believe that then it would have been better for them.

The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for just under two days and returned with a verdict. They found Stephanie Lazarus guilty in the first degree murder of Sherri Rasmussen. In May of 2012 she was sentenced to twenty-five years to life for the murder and an additional two years for the charge of “personal use of a firearm.” The courts upheld her conviction and sentenced in 2015. According to the California Department of Corrections Website she is not eligible for parole until January of 2026 when she be well into her 60's.

Upon her arrest the LAPD had allowed Stephanie to retire, apparently with full benefits. Her lawyers had pointed out in her trial that she had never had one disciplinary action taken against her while on the police force. I have to say that despite the evidence of her guilty, I find this a bit odd. I found nothing that spoke of anything regarding her having confrontations or issues with anyone, aside from Sherri. But, I also know that people who are controlling and manipulative often do get away with a lot of things throughout life.

Sherri's parents filed a wrongful death suit against the city and members of the LAPD. They argued that Stephanie had been allowed to go free for so long because her co-workers failed to investigate her and that they have essentially covered up for her. The suit was dismissed after several years.

There was another interesting side note to this case. A woman named Jennifer Francis was a criminalist for the LAPD. She testified at Stephanie's trial as she was the one who had determined the DNA match. Which, by the way according to her matched Stephanie to a point of 1 in 402 quadrillion. She would file a suit against the city and also the LAPD in 2013 stating that she had been pressured by officers to “make” a case against particular people in cases. When it came to the Stephanie Lazarus case she claimed that the LAPD “deliberately” overlooked evidence that pointed to Lazarus and that in 2005 she had been told to ignore any evidence that would implicate her. She also claimed that when it was brought to the attention of superiors she was “retaliated” against. I did not dig too super deep into her allegations and proof so I cannot tell you the specifics. In January 2017 it was said that most of the case was thrown out as the judge stated that he saw no merit in the case. Some have argued that it was just one more “cover-up” attempt made by the LAPD and the City of L.A.