Cousin sticks up for victim: Relatives resent image painted by defense

Kim Smith

Monday, April 30, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

A cousin who grew up with Ronald Rudin and who was peripherally involved in his land deals says Rudin may have been driven to make money, but he was a good man.

Robert Riley, 71, of Lubbock, Texas, said he doesn't appreciate the picture that Margaret Rudin's defense attorney, Michael Amador, attempted to paint of his cousin being involved in shady deals.

Jurors entered their third day of deliberations today in Rudin's case. She is accused of killing Rudin in December 1994.

"I sure think Ron's being given a bum rap," Riley said during a phone conversation last week. "He's being portrayed as someone sinister, and I would wholeheartedly repudiate that."

During the nine-week trial, Amador tried to convince jurors that Rudin was actually killed by people who benefited from his less-than-scrupulous land deals.

Rudin bought 165 acres of land in Lee Canyon and tried to turn it into a subdivision. Because he wanted to avoid paying the higher costs of subdividing the property, Rudin devised a scheme, Amador said.

It was claimed in court that Rudin pretended to sell pieces of the property by signing the names of distant relatives to sales documents in front of a public notary, one of his trustees, Sharron Cooper.

The land was supposed to come back into his real name through quiet title actions, but he died before all of the transactions could be completed.

One of Amador's theories is that Cooper and another trustee, Harold Boscutti, became millionaires overnight because of Rudin's death. The Lee Canyon property had risen in value from $550,000 to $6 million, and the trustees did not have to pay a capital gains tax because they inherited it from Rudin.

Riley said he agreed to let his cousin use his name and an uncle did the same.

"In a joking matter I said do whatever you want as long as you don't get me in trouble," Riley said. "He may have been stretching the truth, but I think he was as honorable as most real estate people are."

That defense was a "smoke screen," Riley said.

As children, Riley said, he and Rudin and nearly a dozen cousins spent summers on an Illinois farm owned by their grandparents. He and Rudin were almost like brothers and stayed in touch until his death.

Riley described Rudin as a private and competitive workaholic who liked to tease and liked to hunt.

"He always tried to get me to come out to Vegas," Riley said. "I was in the building material business, and he would always say 'This is the place to be Bob.'"

Riley is convinced Margaret Rudin planned his cousin's death far in advance, going so far as to avoid having her picture taken during a family reunion the summer before Rudin died.

"When she became a suspect and 'America's Most Wanted' sought pictures of her, hell, there weren't any," Riley said.

Riley said he has been keeping track of the case through the Internet. Many other relatives are paying close attention, too, he said.

Another cousin, Carol Graham, 45, has been watching coverage on the cable channel Court TV from her home in Philadelphia. Although significantly younger than Rudin, who was 62 when he died, Graham said she remembers him well.

"He was always a nice person, a nice man who was quiet and always smiling," Graham said. "It's hard for me to believe anyone would kill him, and it's hard for me to believe Margaret did it because she's a nice person. She was, I thought, warm."

Graham, too, said she doesn't like the way Rudin was portrayed during the trial.

"He liked guns, but that doesn't make him a bad person," Graham said. "And he wasn't good at marriages, but who is anymore? I just think he was looking for answers like everyone is."