Website devoted to Margaret Rudin’s trial

Kim Smith

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 12:01 p.m.

People who aren't getting enough of the Margaret Rudin murder trial on television and in the newspapers have only to turn to the Internet to get the latest updates on the case.

The case has garnered so much interest a Florida Internet company, Weaselsearch.com, designed its own Margaret Rudin website.

Rudin, 56, is accused of killing her husband, Ronald Rudin, 64, in December 1994.

Prosecutors contend Rudin shot her husband to death, decapitated him and set his remains on fire in order to get her share of an estate estimated to be worth between $8 million and $11 million.

Michael Mann, president of Weaselsearch.com and a Florida resident, said trial watchers can read the latest stories on the case, offer their opinions on message boards and in polls and read biographies of the major players.

Twenty-five people nationwide also have become on-line jurors and will decide Rudin's guilt or innocence at the end of the trial, Mann said. How they reached their decision will be summarized by each juror and posted on the web within days of the verdict.

In the meantime, the jurors are discussing the case in a chat room all of their own, Mann said.

Mann said the website offers stories from Las Vegas' two daily newspapers in addition to stories written by two "Weasel investigators" and an occasional editorial.

The website receives between 80,000 and 100,000 "hits" a day, Mann said.

Weaselsearch.com is owned in part by the C&M Productions, a company licensed in Las Vegas and New York.

Rudin's attorney, Michael Amador, is the resident agent of C&M Productions, but said he has nothing to do with the website. He said he did, however, provide a biography, certain motions and a photo to Weaselsearch.com.

"A resident agent does nothing but receive papers on behalf of a corporation, and I've already told them that when they are up for renewal to remove my name," Amador said.

Amador said he also had nothing to do with a cash reward offered on the website prior to trial for information that might help Rudin. Nor will he receive any information from the on-line jury or revenue from the many ads posted on the site, Amador said.

Mann declined to specify who was behind the reward, saying only it was offered by the "friends and family" of Rudin.

Mann said all of the stories on the website are "middle of the ground" or unbiased.

"You'll only find reputable news and articles on there," Mann said. "The news isn't about 'I think' it's about the facts."