Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part VI, 3/17/86)

T&T EXCLUSIVE

Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part VI, 3/17/1986)

In 1986, Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in her Van Nuys home.

23 years later, in 2009, LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus was arrested for the crime. Lazarus was convicted of first degree murder in 2012, a trial I covered from gavel to gavel.

Early in her LAPD career, Stephanie kept a diary of her daily patrol rounds.

This diary entry is from March 17, 1986, 33 years ago today and three weeks after Sherri's murder.

 At the time, Stephanie was a patrol officer assigned to the LAPD’s Devonshire Division. Her partner that day was Dennis H---.

H---

A83

2330 – 0815 (NO C-7)
DEV 

3-17-86
 
First thing we did after roll call was to Handle a Code 30 on Vassar.

Then we had donuts Lassen / De Soto. At 0100 we had to go to the Station. I had to conduct a Rape Investigation. At first this Rape seemed legitimate. But as the story went on this blk female who lived at 91st and Vermont downtown got picked up by a blk male at 2300, went home with him to Merridy / Zelzah where he raped her and took her $21.00. It was rather the usual story for a prostitute. She doesn’t get paid so she claims rape.

We went by the apt and he wasn’t there. We took her to West Park for medical treatment. Then we went back to the Station to finish reports and see what we were going to do w/ her. We had to go to Parker Center to book the rape kit so we took her w/ us. She called her mom. There is always so much paper work for such a unnecessary report.

We stopped by Western Bagels on the way home, got some bagels.
Dennis wrote a registration ticket and a red light and that was EOW. We put in for no Code 7. Dennis is crazy to work w/. You don’t know know if he’s serious or not on anything. 

NOTE This morning Sgt. Ryan counseled me on a matter Scotty Henderson and I dealt with a few days ago. This man we had stopped at Tampa / Plummer in a Volkswagen who ran the light in front of us came in to complain that I yelled at him. He liked Scotty but said I yelled at him. I should have written that fool.

My friend Matthew McGough's book, The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation, will be released on April 30, 2019. You can pre-order his book on Amazon HERE.

The previous diary entry can be found HERE.
The next diary entry can be found HERE.