Goodman investigation goes cold

The police investigation into Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman’s mysterious incident in the bathroom of a Summerlin park isn’t closed, but it’s not going anywhere.

“We have no new information. It’s still open pending someone coming forward with (tips), but the opportunity window is closing on that,” Las Vegas police Lt. Clint Nichols said Thursday.

“We have no leads and no tips. It all occurred in a bathroom with no cameras, no witnesses.”

Goodman, 42, the son of Mayor Carolyn Goodman and former mayor Oscar Goodman, was found unconscious with severe head injuries about 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 15 in the men’s restroom at South Tower Park, near Charleston Boulevard and west of the Las Vegas Beltway. He had left his home about 11 a.m. to exercise.

Nichols said Goodman, who wasn’t robbed, had no memory of the incident when interviewed by detectives a few weeks later. A forensic search of the bathroom turned up nothing.

“He remembers getting ready to go for a run, and then waking up in the hospital,” he said.

There was initial speculation that Goodman was attacked after KLAS-TV, Channel 8, ran a report stating that Ross Goodman, Eric’s brother, had been found beaten in a Summerlin bathroom. Reviewjournal.com briefly repeated the station’s error, attributing the information to KLAS.

Police denied the report in a news conference days later and said they couldn’t rule out a medical episode or a fall. That’s still the most likely scenario, Nichols said Thursday.

“We’re leaning that way,” he said. “Until something else breaks that would lead us in another direction. Quite frankly, we simply do not know… At this point we’re at a loss for words.”

Carolyn and Oscar Goodman said in a statement, “One of our sons suffered a traumatic injury. He received the best of care at University Medical Center. He is now in a rehabilitation center and doing very well. The family asks that our privacy is respected through his recovery.”

Mayor Carolyn Goodman will deliver the annual state of the city address at 5 p.m. tonight. It’s unclear if she will speak about her son’s injury.

Eric Goodman, who is up for re-election next year, was first elected to a six-year judgeship in 2008. He became the first judge in the newly created Department 11 in Las Vegas Justice Court.

He previously worked as a criminal defense lawyer in his father’s law firm.

Anyone with information about the incident was urged to call the police violent crimes section at 702-828-5634 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or www.crime­stoppersofnv.com.

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @blasky on Twitter.