Rudin vows a life of service if cleared

Kim Smith

Wednesday, May 16, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

Margaret Rudin knows exactly what she wants to do if she is cleared in the shooting death of her husband, and it doesn't include antiques.

In her second telephone interview with the Sun since her conviction May 2, Rudin, a former antique shop owner, said she wants to spend the rest of her life helping people.

Although she said earlier she was unhappy with her new lawyers, Rudin says now that she plans keep the public defenders who were assigned to her case.

"I'd like to become an investigator, and I'd like to work for Mr. Wysocki," Rudin said Tuesday evening from the Clark County Detention Center.

Michael Wysocki and Thomas Dillard were part of Rudin's defense team during her 10-week trial. She was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in the December 1994 death of her husband, Ronald Rudin.

Margaret Rudin is sure her conviction will be overturned, and she will be granted a second trial during which she'll gain her freedom.

"I just dearly loved so much Thomas Dillard and Mike Wysocki, and I felt they were such an important part of the team," Rudin said. "I had no idea, since I'd never have to go through a trial before, how important an investigator is to an attorney."

As for her new public defenders, Rudin said she has reconsidered her efforts to fire them. Although she said Friday she was worried that Jordan Savage was inexperienced, she has resolved many of her issues with him and has met his co-counsel, Curtis Brown. She said she was favorably impressed.

Rudin also said she plans to devote time to the Lady Justice Foundation, a nonprofit organization she recently started with the aid of two friends. They hope to have their website up within the next few days. The address will be ladyjusticefoundation.org.

"I'd like to make some little bit of difference with anyone who's incarcerated, but particularly the women," Rudin said. "We want to start out primarily helping women in Nevada who are incarcerated (who) sometimes don't even have the basics things. ... We want to help them financially to get things started.

"Then I want to do a lot of things that have to do with bringing some attention to the injustices that ... go on in the system."

Rudin said she can write an entire book on things that go on in the Clark County Detention Center.

Rudin hopes to help fund the organization with proceeds from children's books and a cookbook she wrote during her two years on the run. She recently found out she may be able to sell them on the Internet.

The former socialite, who turns 58 on May 31, said she "hasn't the foggiest idea" about where her movie and life story rights stand. She signed them over last summer to a man from whom she had been receiving spiritual advice, but sued him when questions over his credentials arose. That lawsuit is still pending.

She then signed the rights over to her attorney Michael Amador, whom she fired last week. Amador told District Judge Joseph Bonaventure repeatedly that he took Rudin's case for free.

Prosecutors have said during hearings that Amador's compensation will be investigated.

"It's just never been a big issue with me. It's never been of primary importance, and I guess that's why I signed them away twice. You'd think somewhere along the line I'd get smarter, but I really don't have any idea," Rudin said.

Rudin said she will continue using the two hours she is allowed out of her cell each day to telephone family members and friends who have supported her all along.

Her mother, a Tennessee resident who turns 80 at the end of the month, has been a tremendous support, Rudin said.

"What she has elaborated on so often is that God always answers prayers. He just doesn't answer them in our time. He answers them when he wants to for whatever purpose he is trying to accomplish or trying to do," Rudin said.

"My mother says 'Look at how many people's lives this has affected and touched.' She said so many people are closer to God than they were before because of what's happened with me," Rudin said. "She has such faith in God that she passes it along to those of us in the family that need her. She's definitely the matriarch."

Rudin said she is a firm believer in positive thinking and meditation. She doesn't think about her conviction being upheld and a lifetime in prison.

"I know you're not going to believe this, but I refuse to allow myself to even dwell on it or think about it," Rudin said. "It makes such a tremendous difference over your life when you can force yourself to dwell on only positive thoughts."