NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7A
Witnesses testify con man still alive
Convicted killer hopes evidence will force new trial
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — At a restaurant on the Greek island of Mykonos a door opened, and a familiar figure stepped inside, the witness said.
"I thought to myself, 'God, I know this person,' Connie Gerrard testified.
Levin was supposed to have been murdered in 1984 by members of the Billionaire Boys
Club, a group of ruthlessly ambitious young men who put their money into get-rich-quick schemes
Levin has been sighted at different locations since then, long after he supposedly had died.
The Ron Levin sightings now form the basis of an effort to win a new trial for Joe Hunt, the 36-year-old former leader of the Billionaire Boys who was
the recognition on his face and he kind of paed," she said.
George Gerrard, her husband, recalled that his wife had said to him, "That's Ron Levin."
Nadia Ghaleb, former waitress at a Beverly Hills restaurant, said that one morning in 1987, she had spotted Levin getting into a brown Mercedes convertible on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood.
She said she had known Levin in the 1970s and '80s and remembered him as tall, prematurely silver-haired and groomed in trendy clothes.
Robbie Robinson, a former reporter for City News Service, testified that he had been waiting in line to see a movie in Westwood in 1986 when Levin walked up to him and said, "Hi, Robbie."
sentenced to life without parole for ordering Levin's murder.
"This was surprising because I hadn't seen him in 21/2 years and I heard that he was missing." Robbie Robinson
Hunt's lawyers contended that Levin, a con man whose body was never found, had faked his death and framed Hunt. Prosecutors insist Hunt was convicted on firm evidence. They have refused to comment on the sightings, but they have said that they would offer witnesses who would cast doubt on the tales.
Hunt's lawyers have presented these witness stories:
Gerrard said she had recognized Levin in Mykonos because she had been introduced to him before. "When Mr. Levin saw me, his facial expression changed," she said. "I saw
Robbie Robinson
Former City News service reporter
"This was surprising because I hadn't seen him in 2 1/2 years and I heard that he was missing," Robinson said.
Ivan Werner, a funeral director, identified Levin as a mourner at a Westwood funeral in 1887. He said the man had white hair, a close-cropped beard and was impec cably groomed. Werner said he recognized
paper several months later.
The witnesses had not testified at the 1987 trial.
Prosecutors contended that Levin had been killed after swindling Hunt in a $4 million commodities scam.
A Hunt cohort, James Pittman, said on A Current Affair in 1993 that he had shot Levin and helped bury the body in the Angeles National Forest.
But law officers found no trace of the body. The evidence against Hunt included a to-do list in his handwriting, found in Levin's apartment, which said tape mouth, close blinds, handcuff, put gloves on, kill dog.
Thursday, May 2, 1996
Two more attorneys to aid in travel probe
Federal prosecutors will try to sort out White House firings
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The hiring of two veteran federal prosecutors gives new intensity to the Whitewater counsel's investigation of the firing of White House travel office employees later cleared of wrongdoing.
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr has hired Roger Adelman, a former prosecutor specializing in white-collar crimes, and, on Tuesday, borrowed Eric Dubeler from the U.S. attorney's office.
Starr's action comes four months after the White House suddenly produced a 2 1/2-year-old memo in which an aide, David Watkins, said he discharged the seven career employees at the insistence of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Under scrutiny is whether that nine-page statement disagrees with Watkins' congressional testimony, which did not assign so substantial a role to the first lady. Clinton has said in writing that she had no role in the firings.
Watkins' lawyer, Bob Mathias, said yesterday that Watkins was cooperating with Starr's investigation.
Prosecutors also have been concerned about the White House's failure to give the late Vincent Foster's detailed handwritten notes on the travel office matter.
Asked if he thought the case would wind up in a courtroom, Mathias said, "Absolutely not. There is absolutely no basis for charging him with any crime."
Six weeks ago, the matter was handed to Starr who already is investigating the complex Whitewater case in Arkansas. Unlike Whitewater, the travel office case is fairly clear cut. Also unlike Whitewater, it occurred after the Clintons had moved into the White House.
Shortly after the first family moved in, the
travel office staff was replaced by people from a Little Rock, Ark., travel firm. In the uproar that followed, five of the seven were given new government jobs. The sixth retired, and Billy Dale, the travel office director, was put on trial on charges of stealing
Hillary Clinton
travel office tunnels and later was acquitted. Both newly hired prosecutors have experience with high-profile, federal cases. Adelman's most famous case was the prosecution of John Hinckley, who has been held since 1981 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Dubelier recently handled the case of Francisco Martin Duran, convicted of firing a gun at the White House in an assassination attempt.
travel office funds and later was acquitted.
Adelman continues to work at his law firm, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart; Dubelier, who worked under veteran New Orleans district attorney Harry Connick Sr., will work the case full time.
Victoria Toensing, former deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, said she saw special significance in Starr's use of Adelman.
"It's obvious that Ken Starr feels there is evidence that has to be looked at by a serious prosecutor and has to be managed by someone who had extensive experience." Toenensing said. "Ken's very methodical. He knows how to build a case. You would never see anything shoot-from-the-hip from him.
In addition to practicing law, Adelman teaches evidence courses at Georgetown University Law School. Among his students was Toensing's son, and she praised Adelman as someone who taught because he cared about the law.
A former colleague in the prosecutor's office, E. Lawrence Barcella, said both Adelman and Dubelier were intimately familiar with trying cases in front of Washington juries.
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