Writer Frees Belushi Tape, Avoids Jail

Free-lance writer Christopher Van Ness avoided a 10-day jail term for contempt of court Thursday when he surrendered a 1982 taped interview with Cathy Evelyn Smith about the drug-related death of comedian John Belushi.

At a brief hearing before Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson, Van Ness also agreed to testify today at Smith’s on-going preliminary hearing, which will determine whether she will stand trial for murder.

Nelson had issued the contempt order on Sept. 27 after Van Ness refused to turn over his tape. When a Superior Court judge refused on Wednesday to vacate the 10-day sentence, Nelson ordered Van Ness to jail. He was handcuffed and placed in a holding cell. While awaiting transportation to County Jail, however, he signed an agreement to surrender the tape and was released.

Van Ness, 40, had repeatedly refused to surrender the tape and to testify in the case, maintaining that he was covered by the California Shield Law, which protects news reporters from revealing confidential material. But Nelson ruled that the law does not apply to Van Ness because he is a free-lance writer and not a full-time employee of a news-gathering agency.

The state Court of Appeals on Thursday denied an appeal from Van Ness of the week-old contempt order, as the Los Angeles Superior Court had done earlier.

“Basically, I have done what I set out to do,” Van Ness said after Thursday’s court hearing, explaining that he had hoped to set a legal precedent for protecting free-lance writers.

“The courts have denied that precedent,” Van Ness said, adding that his only recourse is to follow Nelson’s order. Besides avoiding jail, Nelson will not have to pay a $1,000 fine.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Elden S. Fox, one of the prosecutors seeking a second-degree murder conviction in the Smith case, said the tape contains “significant statements from Cathy Smith relating to furnishing all the heroin used by Belushi” on the evening before he died and “of injecting him between 25 and 30 times within that last 24-hour period.”

Fox said although it is clear from the taped interview that Smith, 38, a former backup rock vocalist, did not intend to kill Belushi, intent is not necessary to prove a second-degree murder charge.

Smith was indicted by a Los Angeles County Grand Jury in March, 1983, after the National Enquirer published an article in which she was quoted as saying she accidentally killed the actor in March, 1982, by injecting him with drugs. The article was based on taped interviews in which Smith was quoted as saying she accidentally killed Belushi.

Fox said the 20-minute Van Ness tape has the “most complete and clear statements” from Smith and his testimony is necessary to substantiate those statements.

Smith’s attorney, Howard L. Weitzman, said he doesn’t believe the tape will harm her case.

“What’s supposedly said in the tape has already been testified to. . . . It’s already on record,” he said.