58 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
58 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
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#: 25
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24-Mar-87 18:49 MST
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Sb: APnv 03/19 Vision Suit
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Fm: Executive News Svc. [72135,424]
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To: 72135,424
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A woman whose so-called psychic vision led police to a
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woman's corpse in 1980 and to her own arrest in the slaying is suing police for
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causing "the ultimate nightmare of a civic-minded person," her lawyer says.
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But Assistant City Attorney Michael Fox countered: "Reasonable police
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officers, confronted with reasonable beliefs, a string of bizarre, very
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suspicious circumstances, had sufficient, legal, probable cause to arrest Etta
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Smith."
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The first witnesses to testify in the case Thursday were Katrina Smith, 14,
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and Andrew Smith, 15, the woman's children, who told jurors in Van Nuys Superior
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Court that their mother had come home from work early Dec. 17 after telling
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police about a premonition that a body might be found in Lopez Canyon above Lake
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View Terrace.
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Mrs. Smith was arrested next day in connection with the death of Melanie
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Uribe, 31, who was kidnapped and raped before she was beaten to death. Three men
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ultimately were convicted in the case, but Mrs. Smith's attorney, James Blatt,
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told jurors Wednesday that neither they nor Ms. Uribe had any connection with
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Mrs. Smith. He said she came forward in good faith to help the authorities.
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"It was the ultimate nightmare for a civic-minded person," Blatt said. in his
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opening statement.
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Ms. Smith, 39, was eventually freed and never charged. She seeks unspecified
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damages from the city of Los Angeles for false arrest and humiliation, including
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a strip search, Blatt said.
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Ms. Smith, a mother of three, doesn't claim to be psychic but had a
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"powerfully unusual" experience that led her to the body, Blatt said.
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The search for Miss Uribe was already under way after she failed to report
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for work at Pacoima Memorial Hospital on Dec. 15, 1980.
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Two days later, after hearing news reports about the missing Burbank nurse,
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Ms. Smith "had a feeling, a vision, a psychic experience, whatever you want to
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call it," Blatt said.
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The vision placed the woman's body in a remote hillside area in Lopez Canyon
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above Lake View Terrace, he said.
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She left work early and went to police to tell investigators where she
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believed the body could be found. Ms. Smith then went out to the area with two
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of her children, and they found Miss Uribe's body a half-hour later.
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A forest ranger and police were then contacted.
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"From the moment of finding that body, everything would turn upside down for
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her," Blatt said.
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Detectives questioned Ms. Smith for several hours before arresting her Dec.
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18.
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Meantime, a police informant said one of the killers had bragged about the
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slaying, Fox said. The man was arrested and he confessed to the crime, also
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implicating the other two men, he said.
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Police said the trio jumped into Ms. Uribe's pickup truck as she was waiting
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at a traffic light, then drove her into the canyon area 15 miles north of
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downtown, where she was robbed, raped and beaten over the head with a rock.
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Ms. Smith was released without apology Dec. 21 after detectives interviewed
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the suspects and uncovered no connection to her, Blatt said.
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Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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spects and u
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