LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Newly hearing, friends and released video shows the colleagues said Lazarus was surprise questioning of desperately in love with John veteran LAPD detective Ruetten, whom she dated for Stephanie Lazarus moments several years before he before she was arrested in married Rasmussen. connection with the decades- The acquaintances say Lazarus old murder of her ex- was deeply upset when Ruetten boyfriend's wife. broke up with her and got Fellow detectives had asked engaged. He married Rasmussen, Lazarus to leave her gun a hospital nursing director, behind and accompany them to three months before her death. a jail interrogation room to Lazarus wrote in a journal investigate an art theft that she was shattered by his suspect -- her specialty. engagement. Once inside, detectives said "This is very bad. My they had actually brought her concentration is negative-10, there to talk about the 1986 " Lazarus wrote in 1985 when killing of Sherri Rasmussen. she learned that Ruetten was In the video, from June 2009, going to wed, according to Lazarus appears dumbfounded, testimony. asking, "You're accusing me Lazarus later wrote that she of this? Is that what you're, asked for time off work is that what you're saying?" because she "was too stressed "Am I on 'Candid Camera' or out about John," according to something? This is insane," a journal entry read in court. she said, according to a Former LAPD Sgt. Mike transcript obtained by KTLA Hargreaves, Lazarus' former partner, the Los Angeles roommate, testified saying Times. "This is absolutely Lazarus woke him up "crying" crazy. This is insane." in the fall of 1985 because Lazarus, a 26-year veteran of Reutten had just broken up the force, admitted to with her. confronting the victim on Hargreaves testified that several occasions but denied Lazarus had earlier told him having a role in the murder, Reutten was "her idea of a according to the transcripts. perfect guy." During the videotaped Reutten found Rasmussen's interrogation, detectives body in the living room of told Lazarus she could leave their Van Nuys condominium on if she wanted to, but when Feb. 24, 1986. Investigators she walked out, she was say the 29-year-old had been intercepted by other shot three times with a .38- detectives who were waiting caliber gun, bitten and badly and arrested her. beaten. Detectives say they linked Her car, a silver BMW, was Lazarus to the murder through discovered 10 days after her saliva found in a bite mark death about two miles from on the victim. She has the couple's condominium in pleaded not guilty and is the 7100 block of Balboa being held on $10 million Boulevard, but contained no bail. A trial is expected to clues, police said. begin in the spring. She Lazarus was actually faces a possible life mentioned in the original sentence. case file because of her involvement with the victim's During her preliminary husband.
Tags: accused, Detective, Interrogation, LAPD, murder, shows, video
