A woman accused of burglarizing the San Francisco hotel room of “Jeopardy” game show host Alex Trebek was ordered today to stand trial on all charges in the case.
Lucinda Moyers, 56, was arrested in the early morning hours of July 26 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis at 55 Fourth St. and charged with residential burglary, burglary of an inhabited dwelling and possession of stolen property, prosecutors said.
At Moyers’ preliminary hearing in San Francisco Superior Court today, a police officer who responded to the hotel that day said tissue was apparently somehow placed into the door jam of the hotel room to keep it ajar.
Officer Sean Frost said Trebek told him he was asleep with his wife Jean in a room on the 26th floor of the hotel when he awoke to see a dark silhouette of a person in the room.
After initially believing the person to be his wife, Trebek realized she was beside him in bed, then saw a flicker of light in the corner of the room near the doorway, Frost said.
After putting on some clothes, Trebek went into the hotel hallway where he saw a woman later identified as Moyers walking away, according to Frost.
Trebek followed Moyers and then confronted her, asking her what she was doing in his room and she said she was there visiting friends, Frost said.
Her defense attorney, Mark Jacobs from the public defender’s office, has since said she was at the hotel as a prostitute and did not burglarize the room.
After being confronted by Trebek, Moyers started running toward a stairwell and when Trebek gave chase, he felt a pain in his leg and fell to the ground, Frost said. Trebek revealed in the days after the burglary that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon while giving chase.
Trebek was eventually able to call hotel security, which apprehended Moyers downstairs. Police later found a purse belonging to Trebek’s wife under an ice machine on the 26th floor, as well as Trebek’s wallet under an ice machine on the 25th floor, Frost said.
He said $661 from Trebek’s wallet as well as a bracelet belonging to his wife had not yet been found.
At the end of the preliminary hearing this afternoon, Judge Andrew Cheng ordered Moyers to stand trial on all charges in the case.
She will return to court on Nov. 29 for formal arraignment on the charges, prosecutors said.
Moyers has been convicted four times of burglary–in 1990, 1991 and twice in 1999 — but prosecutors said this week they do not plan on trying the case under the state’s three-strikes law, which would make her eligible for a sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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