Columnist Jeff German: Rudin case brings out law’s best

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 3:30 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com

THERE'S something about a high-profile murder case that pares down our justice system to the bone.

The addition of John Momot last week to Margaret Rudin's defense team added more flare to her murder trial, which has been carried live on Las Vegas ONE and Court TV.

But it also gave us a vivid picture of the justice system at work.

You may recall that Momot was until recently Sandy Murphy's attorney in the sensational Ted Binion murder case. Momot performed admirably in that mega-trial, though his client wound up convicted of killing Binion.

In the justice system, lawyers, investigators and expert witnesses can be friends in court one day and enemies the next.

Take the case of private detectives Tom Dillard and Michael Wysocki. Both are good friends who were on opposite sides of the Binion case. Dillard worked for the prosecution, and Wysocki helped Murphy's co-defendant, Rick Tabish.

But that was last year.

This year Dillard and Wysocki are working together on Rudin's defense team.

The last thing Murphy probably expected was Momot joining Dillard and Wysocki in defense of Rudin, who is charged with killing her multimillionaire husband in December 1994.

As an advocate for Murphy last year, Momot vigorously attacked Dillard's investigative work. He's still a strong believer in Murphy's innocence.

This year, now that he's on the same team with Dillard, Momot has a different opinion of his one-time courtroom foe.

"Tom Dillard is an excellent investigator," Momot says. "He's doing a tremendous job on behalf of Margaret Rudin."

And Dillard says he bears no grudge against Momot.

"I don't take it personally," Dillard says. "That's the system. One day you can be adversaries and the next day teammates. As long as you do your job honestly and aboveboard, you've got nothing to worry about."

Murphy, however, took it personally last month when she learned that another one of her lawyers, Tom Pitaro, preceded Momot on Rudin's defense team. Pitaro came on board at the insistence of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, the judge in both the Rudin and Binion cases.

With Pitaro's appointment, Bonaventure was looking to bail out Rudin's lead attorney, Michael Amador, who headed into the trial woefully unprepared.

But upon hearing Pitaro was associating with Dillard, Murphy fired Pitaro, who at the time was working on her appeal. That, insiders say, irked Momot, a close Pitaro friend who days later left Murphy's employment, as well.

Momot, you may recall, had brought Pitaro into Murphy's defense effort.

When Momot became available to the burdened Rudin defense team last week, Pitaro naturally called on his pal for assistance.

"He needs help," Momot says. "There's a tremendous amount of work that has to be done. We've been helping each other for the last 25 years, and this is no exception." Bonaventure, facing the pressure of live television cameras in the Rudin case, has welcomed Momot and Pitaro into his courtroom with open arms. So has Rudin.

The two lawyers have enjoyed excellent reputations within the legal community for two decades. But it is just recently, with the television media's insatiable interest in a good court case, that the rest of the public has begun to see how really good they are.

So no one is surprised that both lawyers now are participating in the Rudin trial, the most well-publicized case since Binion. Television viewers at home expect to see the best the court system can offer when they sit back in their easy chairs and watch the legal drama unfold. And Momot and Pitaro are among the best.

It's the system pared down to the bone.