By Michael J. Tittinger
Daily Press Staff Writer

DOWNTOWN LA — An elderly Santa Monica landlord, who investigators suspect may have had a hand in the murder of a homeless man last year, was ordered on Monday by a federal judge to stand trial later this summer on 10 counts of fraud.

Helen Louise Golay and her alleged accomplice, Olga Rutterschmidt, were reunited Monday morning in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, standing side-by-side one another, both speaking softly while contending they were “not guilty” of the mail fraud charges mounted against them. The federal case is centered around an alleged scheme by which the two women would befriend homeless men and then cash in on their insurance policies following their deaths.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul L. Abrams set a trial date for July 25 to be heard before Judge Gary Klausner in the same Roybal Federal Building as Monday’s arraignment hearing.

The 75-year-old Golay and 73-year-old Rutterschmidt, of Hollywood, each sat quietly in the court’s detaining room — where defendants are grouped together and partitioned from the rest of the courtroom by protective glass — avoiding eye contact while they awaited their turn before the judge. The unlikely pair were a study in contrasts. Golay, in her trademark blonde bouffant and glasses, sat calmly and motionless in her LA County issued orange jumpsuit. Rutterschmidt, meanwhile, appeared more on edge — shifting in her seat, rolling her shoulders and leaning back against the wall with her pulled-back hair and prison-issued olive colored jumper. The two women have been held in separate facilities since their arrests last month.

Following the court proceeding, both defense attorneys — Roger Jon Diamond, who represents Golay, and Federal Public Defender Kim Savo, representing Rutterschmidt — emphasized that their clients were being tried on mail fraud charges, and nothing else.

“Somehow, there’s a lot of media intrigue — the arsenic and old lace and all that,” said Diamond, who signed on as Golay’s attorney following her May 18 arrest, but after an initial detention hearing. “The bottom line is, this trial is about insurance companies being defrauded.”

Savo went one step further, insisting typical mail fraud cases “are as boring as they get.”

“Until the LAPD files charges, that’s all this case is,” she said.

Asked if he thought his client could expect to be facing additional murder charges in the near future, Diamond shook his head defiantly. He declined to comment on specific evidence that could be brought forth in a criminal trial, stating that he had only seen the indictment at this stage.

“She vehemently asserts her innocence,” Diamond told the Daily Press on Monday. “She wants everyone to know that.”

While Golay and Rutterschmidt are considered suspects in last year’s hit-and-run death of 50-year-old Kenneth McDavid in a Los Angeles back alley, no charges have been filed beyond those in relation to the women’s attempts to collect on more than $3 million worth of life insurance policies for McDavid and Paul Vados, a 73-year-old homeless man killed in similar fashion in 1999.

The two women are believed to have masterminded a devious plot to befriend homeless men, set them up with paid-for apartments and then cash in on life insurance claims when they met their untimely demise.

The pair are believed to have collected more than $2 million from 19 different policies taken out on the two victims. According to the LAPD, the women were arrested on federal mail fraud charges because authorities feared the pair may have been on the prowl for new victims.

While Rutterschmidt has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in downtown Los Angeles since their arrests, Golay has been held in San Bernardino County Jail. The county jail often takes overflow prisoners from the federal system, Diamond said.

Keeping Golay in county jail is something that Diamond took issue with on Monday, petitioning Judge Abrams to transfer her to MDC. Diamond argued that the distance his client must routinely travel to and from Los Angeles was not only adversely affecting her defense, but also unjust.

Judge Abrams was not amused by Diamond’s suggestion to “flip a coin” in order to determine which of the defendants should have to be detained in San Bernardino.

Following the proceeding, a stung Diamond was still upset with Golay’s location, alluding to an undue hardship for an elderly woman having to wake up at 4 a.m. each day.

“It’s harder to defend her this way,” Diamond said. “It’s a two-hour drive. There are slip-ups. I went out to see her last week, but it’s a long way to go.”

Judge Abrams set a June 19 date for a motion of discovery, at which time the two sides will be required to present and share evidence, as well as a list of witnesses, as they head towards the July trial date.

Outside the courtroom on Monday, Savo made a motion for the public to refrain judgment on the elderly defendants.

“The government is making all kinds of statements and it’s making it hard for my client to get a fair trial,” she said. “It’s being sensationalized because these are two old ladies, but let’s let these ladies get their due process.”