Preliminary trial date set for Feb. 20
DOWNTOWN LA A preliminary trial was finally set for the case of the so-called “Black Widows” on Thursday morning, following months of delay, to determine whether two elderly women should stand trial for multiple murders as part of an elaborate insurance fraud scheme.
Helen Golay, 75, a former Santa Monica landlord, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, of Hollywood, are scheduled to appear in the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Feb. 20 for what is expected to be a two-day hearing.
The women are accused of raking in several million dollars in an insurance scheme in which they befriended two homeless men, convinced them to sign the women onto their life insurance policies, and murdered Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados in separate, yet similar, back alley hit-and-run crashes.
The hearing date was established less than a week after Golay’s defense attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, filed a motion to dismiss the murder charges against his client because she was denied her right to a speedy preliminary trial. Under state law, a defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing within 10 court days of their arraignment. That trial can be delayed with “good cause” for up to 60 calendar days. Golay and Rutterschmidt were arraigned on Sept. 13, 2006.
Golay’s attorney was catching up on the latest decisions handed down by the Court of Appeals on Jan. 10, when a particular case caught his eye. In a trial overseen by Judge David Wesley — who, coincidentally, is now presiding over the “Black Widows” case — the preliminary hearing was also postponed past the 60 days. Based on that trial, the Court of Appeals ruled on Jan. 10 that a preliminary trial must be set within 60 days of the arraignment.
Seeing an opportunity, Diamond made a trip from his office on Main Street in Santa Monica to Downtown LA to file the motion to dismiss. That motion was mutually agreed upon by Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels and granted by Wesley.
Sitting in her orange jumpsuit on Thursday, looking tired from an eight-month prison stay, Golay was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs after the judge granted the motion for dismissal. During the hour from the time the judge granted the motion to when the prosecution filed new charges against the Santa Monica landlord, Golay was supposed to be free.
“You’re a free woman now,” Diamond told her.
Except she was still in handcuffs. “She was in custody illegally,” Diamond said, since there were technically no federal or state charges pending against his client.
Around 10 a.m., prosecutors and defense attorneys returned to Dept. 102. Golay was arraigned once again, and pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain.
The two defendants should not be joined together, Diamond argued once court was back in session. After Public Defender Michael Sklar, Rutterschmidt’s defense attorney, announced that he and Samuels had reached an agreement on settling Feb. 20 as the preliminary hearing date, Diamond raised his objections again, asking the date be set within the next 10 court days. That request was denied.
The judge also denied a series of requests made by Diamond on behalf of Golay, including new shoes, because her current ones were “worn out,” and some clothes to keep her warm while she sits in a cold cell on court appearance days.
Another request Wesley denied was for an order to keep Golay housed in a cell by herself because she is classified as a K-10 inmate. She has recently been housed with another inmate who has been harassing her and deterring her ability to concentrate on the trial, Diamond said.
The case of the “Black Widows” has traveled a long road just to get to this point. The meeting on Thursday between the prosecutor and defense attorneys marked the fifth attempt to set a preliminary hearing. Delays in the past were caused mainly by Sklar, who kept requesting more time from the judge because he had joined the case late in the game.
When Sklar signed on in the summer, he received several hundred pages of discovery — pretrial information — and interviews from 100 different witnesses. The attorney only had the information in his possession for a few months when he made his first request to postpone the date of the preliminary hearing on Sept. 13.
Golay and Rutterschmidt were arrested on May 18, 2006, on federal mail fraud charges. Those charges were subsequently dismissed, giving prosecutors the option of refiling if the “Black Widows” beat the murder charges, which were filed on July 31 of last year.
Investigators say Golay and Rutterschmidt are responsible for the murders of ex-transients Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 19, 2007. Read the original PDF.