Rudin claims fraud

Kim Smith

Friday, Aug. 4, 2000 | 10:17 a.m.

Murder suspect Margaret Rudin has filed a fraud complaint against a man who provided her spiritual advice and convinced her to sell her movie and books rights to him for $1.

Her attorney, Michael Amador, has also asked a District Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Joseph DeLeo Jr. to prevent him from capitalizing on those media rights.

According to prosecutors, Rudin or an accomplice shot her husband in the head multiple times as he was sleeping on Dec. 18, 1994.

Rudin's trial, which had been set for Oct. 30, has been moved back to Jan. 29.

In the complaint filed Thursday, Amador alleges DeLeo misrepresented himself to Rudin as an ordained staff pastor at Central Christian Church and that he had legitimately earned doctorate degrees in philosophy and Christian counseling.

But Amador said DeLeo purchased his degrees and various certificates through mail order companies.

Amador alleges that DeLeo also convinced Rudin to sell her story to him and promised her he would use the money to pay for her legal defense, provide for her grandchildren and help Central Christian Church's jail ministry.

DeLeo also promised to sell some property and give $100,000 to Rudin so she could hire investigators and expert witnesses, Amador claims.

Rudin is suing DeLeo on the grounds of fraud and deceit and breach of contract.

In addition to asking District Judge Gary Redmon to prevent DeLeo from capitalizing on Rudin's literary, TV and media rights, Amador is asking the judge to prevent DeLeo from selling or using any of the private documents she gave him for safekeeping.

Last week Amador asked District Judge Joseph Bonaventure to place a gag order on DeLeo. Bonaventure was supposed to make a ruling on that issue Thursday, but Amador withdrew his request because of the request for the temporary restraining order.

DeLeo's attorney, Patrick McDonald, assured Bonaventure that his client will not discuss Rudin's case with anyone because to do so would be a breach of ethics.

In an affidavit filed in District Court Thursday, DeLeo swears that he was a volunteer pastor at Central Christian Church and believed he was going to become a paid assistant pastor in the fall.

DeLeo also swore that he obtained a doctorate in Christian counseling from the American Associate of Christian Counsel that he says is a fully accredited institution.

In past interviews, DeLeo said 100 percent of the proceeds from Rudin's story were going to be used for jail ministries.