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Woman Shot By St. Pete Police Had Troubled Life

News Channel 8 photo by ANTHONY ALLRED

St. Petersburg police cordon off the area around the home at 5237 Second Avenue North where a woman was fatally shot by police officers.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

Updated: 02/11/2009 05:37 pm

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Julie Goodson

Wendy Ott

ST. PETERSBURG - A handywoman's difficult life came to an end Tuesday night when she was shot by two St. Petersburg police officers as she appeared to be on the verge of plunging a large carving fork into her sometime lover.

One of the officers, Sgt. Joseph Collins, repeatedly told Julie Goodson to put the fork down, but she refused, St. Petersburg police said. When she pulled the fork back, as if she were about to drive it into her sometime girlfriend, both Collins and the other officer, Robert Virant, fired, said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt.

Goodson, 42, died on the kitchen floor. Wendy Ott, 44, was taken to a local hospital to be treated for wounds to her left hand, left heard, left side and the back of her neck, Proffitt said, and she was later released.

The confrontation occurred at Ott's house, at 5237 Second Ave. N., Proffitt said. Goodson used to live with Ott there, but called a former landlady some months ago to say she was moving to another place on the south side of town. Goodson had lived with Ott for five to six years, "really from the time she met her," said Stella Hairelson, 86, the former landlady.

"Once in a while they would argue, but not that bad as a rule," Hairelson said. She said Goodson worked as a handywoman and painted.

Goodson's name was released after investigators learned on good authority that she was an orphan and was adopted, said Maj. Mike Puetz.

At 20, Goodson was a single mother. Hairelson, the landlady, said she had two children – a 21-year-old son now in the service, and a girl in her teens living with her father locally.

Four months after her son was born in 1987, the boy's father was ordered by a North Carolina court to pay Goodson $210 a month in child support. The father, Robert J. Hoagland, was often in arrears, and Goodson had to take him to court at least once to make him keep the payments current, records show.

In 1995, when she was going by the name Julie Kristin Barto, the Ohio native married Charles Goodson, but the disabled man filed for divorce the following year. He came home one day in December 1996 and found she had locked the doors to their then-home at 3152 50th Ave. N., and that she had taken a baseball bat to things in the home, he alleged in court documents filed during the divorce.

Early the following year, Charles Goodson asked a judge to make her stop selling the property in the house, but then he withdrew his divorce petition, court records show, and later in the year the couple filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Charles Goodson renewed his divorce petition in 2001, claiming the couple had been separated for four years and that, since the bankruptcy filing, he had been making all the payments on the 50th Avenue North property. Julie Goodson didn't respond to the divorce action, and a judge gave Charles Goodson all of her interest in the home.

Later, she was involved with Ott, who at one time worked for Directions for Mental Health, a nonprofit agency that helps the mentally ill. Ott's Facebook page says she now works for DirecTV.

While the two were living together in Ott's house in 2006, the pair got into a fight with a neighbor after the neighbor's dog went to the bathroom on Ott's property, police records show. Goodson told an officer she used profane language while dealing with him.

The women followed the man to the front door of his home and, according to the women, he then came out and punched Ott in the face, the report says. Ott and Goodson then started fighting him, and the man broke free, ran inside his house and called the police.

According to the man, one of the women came onto his porch and he punched her to defend himself, the report says. No charges were filed.

The second-to-last contact St. Petersburg police had with either woman was in August.

After she moved out of Ott's house, she moved in with Michael Carver at 3267 39th St. S., police records show. Police were dispatched to Carver's apartment in August, where Goodson, who Carver said was an epileptic, had apparently overdosed, a police report states. It was unclear whether she had attempted suicide.

Authorities learned she was prescribed five drugs -- an anticonvulsing and mood-stabilizing drug typically prescribed for epilepsy and bipolar disorders, another one for epilepsy, a third for anxiety, another one for depression, and another often prescribed as an antihistamine, a police report states. She was taken to Bayfront Medical Center and was still passed out when the investigating police officer left.

"The nurse advised she did not think Goodson was in any danger of passing away at this time," the officer said in a report.

On Tuesday, shortly after 8 p.m., St. Petersburg police received a 911 call from Ott's house, but then the caller hung up, Proffitt said. In accordance with policy, a dispatcher called the house back, and heard "crashing sounds, people yelling, and the sounds of someone in distress" over the telephone, Proffitt said.

Sgt. Collins and several officers showed up, heard an ongoing struggle inside and, thinking someone's life was in danger, burst through the front door, Proffitt said. They found Goodson holding Ott on the floor of the kitchen, clutching a large fork to her throat and threatening her, Proffitt said.

When she pulled the fork back, apparently to drive it into Ott, Collins and Virant fired.

Collins, 57, has been with the agency for 15 years. Virant, 37, has been with the agency for less than two years. They are on administrative leave pending several investigations, which is routine.

When Ott returned home, after being released from the hospital, she declined comment. Later, when reached by telephone, she said, "Please leave us alone to grieve for our family and our friend."

"This is a hard time for all of us."

WFLA reporter Yolanda Fernandez contributed to this report. Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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