Rudin decision to come next month

Greg Tuttle

Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

Clark County District Judge Joseph Bonaventure will decide next month whether defense allegations of a conspiracy between police and civil attorneys to deny the widow of a slain Las Vegas real estate agent her inheritance should result in the dismissal of a murder charge.

After a third day of hearings before Bonaventure, Margaret Rudin's defense attorney, Michael Amador, summed up his case for dismissing the charge by saying police did not have proper grounds to use a wiretap while investigating the 1994 death of Ronald Rudin.

"There was absolutely no need for a wiretap in this case," Amador said Tuesday afternoon.

Amador also argued prosecutors violated Margaret Rudin's rights by waiting almost two years before charging her in connection with her husband's death, and police detectives failed to investigate other suspects who may have had a motive to kill the wealthy businessman.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Owens countered that Amador had failed to present any evidence of misconduct by investigators or prosecutors who worked on the case. The wiretap was a legal investigative tool approved by a judge, Owens said, and Rudin was not in custody for the nearly two-year investigation into her husband's death.

Ronald Rudin, 64, was shot to death and decapitated in December 1994. His body, which had been set on fire, was found the following month in a remote area of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Margaret Rudin, 67, immediately became a suspect in her husband's death, and investigators ruled out other possible suspects by late January 1995, Metro Police Detective James Vaccaro testified Tuesday.

But a grand jury convened to consider the case in March 1995 failed to return an indictment against Margaret Rudin and was dismissed in October. In 1996 Margaret Rudin and two of her late husband's business partners became embroiled in a civil lawsuit over control of Ronald Rudin's estate, estimated at $6 million.

A second grand jury indicted Margaret Rudin on a murder charge in April 1997. She was arrested in November 1999 in Massachusetts.

Bonaventure said he will rule on the defense motions to dismiss the murder charge on Jan. 17. A Feb. 26 trial date is scheduled.