U. S. Open referee speaks out after DA drops murder charge against husband

The U.S. Open referee accused of killing her husband said the only reason she was charged with his violent death was because investigators had no real ace in their case.

Speaking on the Today Show Monday for the first time since a California prosecutors dropped her murder charges, Lois Goodman said she became a scapegoat when investigators were having trouble solving the case.

"I don't think they had anybody else to blame, so they came after me," the 70-year-old said.

In February, officers found Alan Goodman, 80, dead from blunt force trauma but didn't rule it a homicide. Lois Goodman, who was married to her spouse for 50 years, said she found the body.

In August, NYPD officers arrested the ref, who was in Manhattan preparing for the U.S. Open tournament, and brought back to Los Angeles, after investigators said she killed him with a coffee cup.

Lois Goodman maintained her innocence and her children backed up her claims that she could never hurt her husband. Goodman passed a lie-detector test and LA prosecutors dropped the case Friday over insufficient evidence.