Rudin wins public funds for defense

Kim Smith

Friday, Oct. 6, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure agreed Thursday to provide funds for Margaret Rudin's defense experts, but he warned her attorneys he will not be opening any floodgates.

Rudin and an unknown accomplice are accused of shooting her husband, Ron, in the head multiple times as he was sleeping on Dec. 18, 1994. Authorities believe he was then decapitated, placed in a trunk, taken to a remote area along the Colorado River and set on fire.

Bonaventure cited a Nevada Supreme Court case in ruling that Rudin should receive some taxpayer funds to aid in her defense.

According to the case cited by the Supreme Court, defendants who are indigent and can show that experts are needed are entitled to some funding.

Bonaventure made his decision after Rudin testified she is broke and her private attorney, Michael Amador, is offering his services for free.

Prosecutors contend Rudin killed her real estate magnate husband to cash in on his fortune, estimated to be between $5 and $10 million.

After Ron Rudin's death, Rudin found herself embroiled in a civil lawsuit with his estate. The battle ended with a private settlement midway through a 1996 trial.

In trying to determine if she is truly indigent, Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens asked Rudin about the settlement and about any monetary deals that may exist for a book about the murder.

Rudin said that of the $600,000 she received in the settlement, $429,000 went to her attorneys. The rest, she said, was depleted on bills and during her life on the run.

Rudin disappeared right around the time she was indicted on murder charges in April 1997. She was captured in Massachusetts in November after her story appeared on such shows as "America's Most Wanted."

Rudin testified that she has written three books over the past few years, a children's book, a cookbook and what she says is a fictional account of her husband's death and the aftermath.

Amador denied that he will receive any future proceeds from existing or future book deals. In fact, he said, it would be illegal and unethical for him to do so.

It is unclear if the book is part the civil lawsuit Rudin and Amador filed in July against her former spiritual advisor.

Rudin and Amador allege that Joseph DeLeo misrepresented himself as a pastor to Rudin in order to convince her to sign over the rights to her story for $1.

In August, DeLeo, who denies any wrongdoing, agreed not to act on the contract for at least one year.

Bonaventure ruled that if Rudin ever does come into a large sum of money, through an inheritance or a book deal, Amador must divulge that fact so the state can be reimbursed.