Woman Exploits ‘Vision’ as a Springboard to Film, City Says

Is Etta Louise Smith a sincere woman who was stripped of her dignity by a false arrest, or a would-be actress auditioning for her screen debut?

In Van Nuys Superior Court on Friday, attorneys painted two sharply conflicting pictures of the Burbank woman who was jailed for four days after a “psychic vision” led her to the body of a slain Sylmar nurse.

After seven days of testimony in the trial of Smith’s lawsuit against Los Angeles, Judge Joel Rudof ruled Thursday that the 1980 arrest was unlawful because police lacked sufficient evidence to link Smith to the killing.

A jury will begin deliberating Monday on how much the city should pay Smith in damages.

In arguing Friday for a $750,000 judgment, Smith’s attorney, James E. Blatt, described her as woman whose self-esteem was shattered after she was wrongly jailed without bail for “the most serious crime there is.”

Three men with no known connection to Smith eventually were convicted of the murder and are serving sentences of up to life in state prison.

Led Detectives to Body

Smith, 39, came forward voluntarily to tell police that she believed she knew through a vision where the missing nurse’s body had been dumped, Blatt told the jury. She then found the location in Lopez Canyon on her own and led detectives to it.

Her resulting arrest, which included a strip search, was humiliating, Blatt said, and damaged Smith’s faith in the judicial system.

But Assistant City Atty. Michael K. Fox argued that Smith contrived feelings of “anguish, humiliation, shock, disgust and shame” in the courtroom in the hope of selling her story as a book or screenplay.

He cited testimony of an undercover policewoman placed in Smith’s cell that Smith said she was “going to be making a movie” about her experience.

In her testimony, Smith recalled the conversation differently, saying she told the woman that the circumstances surrounding her arrest “sounded like a bad movie.”

“I think this is a role,” Fox said of Smith’s lawsuit. “I think this maybe is an audition.”

Fox argued that Smith suffered no significant trauma in jail and should be compensated with a small amount of money, although he did not suggest a figure.

Then he apologized to Smith for the wrongful arrest.

Apology Called ‘Hypocritical’

In a lively courtroom exchange, Blatt retorted that Fox was “hypocritical” for having waited 6 1/2 years to apologize.

At every turn, Blatt said, Smith’s sole desire was to assist police in solving the kidnap and murder of the nurse, Melanie L. Uribe, 31.

Smith was honest with investigators, Blatt said, even to the point of divulging embarrassing aspects of her personal life, such as an extramarital affair.

In fact, the city attorney cited the affair and other aspects of Smith’s personal life, including a two-year battle with her husband over custody of their three children, when he argued to the jury that factors unrelated to the arrest have caused Smith emotional distress.

But Blatt argued that, in a hardened society where few are willing to step forward to assist police, Smith did help and was rewarded with incarceration.

“Here’s a woman who got involved. . . . A woman who cared a little too much and paid the price,” he said.