3 Slender Brothers Freed by Court of All Charges in Shooting

A Municipal Court judge Wednesday dismissed all charges against the three Slender brothers and blamed sheriff’s deputies for escalating a 1984 fracas outside the family’s Tustin-area home that led to the shooting death of one brother’s wife.

Judge C. Robert Jameson implied that the deputies had used excessive force, and he said the brothers’ response had been that “of reasonable men, under the circumstances.”

The brothers--Charles George, 22, Steve, 25, and Monte, 21--and their parents reacted to the decision with a mixture of tears and jubilation.

Because the case had been dismissed once before by another judge, the district attorney’s office cannot prosecute the three men for the incident again.

The brothers had been charged with assault on an officer. Charles George had also been charged with attempted murder.

“It’s been a nightmare; thank God it’s over,” said their father, George Slender, as he and his wife, Jeanette, hugged their sons and the defense lawyers.

The incident began with a routine traffic citation for Charles George Slender in the driveway of the Slender home June 27, 1984. It ended with six shots fired and Charles George’s 23-year-old wife, Deanna, lying dead near the garage.

Charles George Slender and the sheriff’s deputy who shot his wife, Leon Bennigsdorf, were both seriously wounded.

Both sides agreed with Judge Jameson that the first pivotal point was when Monte Slender came out of the house and complained to the two sheriff’s deputies, Bennigsdorf and Ben Stripe, about the ticket they were giving his brother. The two deputies finally arrested Monte.

The police and the Slenders disagree about what happened next.

The Slenders and several neighbors said the officers began beating on Monte’s head with their batons and that Charles George and Steve struggled with the deputies to free him. Bennigsdorf and Stripe claimed that Monte resisted arrest and that they simply tried to defend themselves when his brothers joined in.

Stripe somehow lost his gun, and Charles George picked it up. His wife ran to his side, and apparently was trying to get him to put it down.

Bennigsdorf testified he shot both Slender and his wife only in self-defense. The first shot, Judge Jameson ruled, was fired by accident by Charles George at the time his wife grabbed at the gun.

But Jameson found that Bennigsdorf fired the next four shots, at Charles George and Deanna, hitting each of them once. The last shot, fired by Charles George, struck Bennigsdorf in the face.

Jameson said he was disturbed that Charles George fired at Bennigsdorf because there had been testimony that by then the gun was on the ground, so Charles George had to make a conscious act to pick up the gun and shoot the sheriff’s deputy.

“But with his wife lying there shot, and the officer already firing four rounds at them, it would be a reasonable suspicion that the officer would crank off more rounds if given the chance,” Jameson said. “I have to conclude that (Slender) did what any reasonable man would do.”

Jameson said he questioned whether the officers had even made a legal arrest of Monte Slender. But even if they did, the judge said, it was clear to him that Monte had done nothing to deserve being beaten on the head, and that his brothers had responded naturally in defending him.

While Jameson did not directly accuse the deputies of excessive force, he cited earlier court opinions that whenever officers use excessive force, it generally results in someone being hurt. Jameson also left no doubt what he thought of the officers’ actions by his defense of the Slenders’ actions.

‘More Consistent’

Jameson also said he found the neighbors’ version of events, which sided with the Slenders’, “more consistent” than the testimony by Bennigsdorf and Stripe.

The three defense lawyers, Al Stokke, Marshall Schulman and Ron Brower, were hugged by the brothers as if they were members of the family.

Brower said it was the most emotional case in which he has ever been involved.

“This judge has a lot of guts,” Brower said.

The young Slenders could hardly stop crying.

“It’s been so long; it’s great to have it over,” Monte Slender said.

Charles George hugged Schulman, his own attorney, so hard that Schulman turned red while smiling.

“I’m just glad justice was done,” Charles George Slender said.

Schulman agreed.

“These boys should never have been arrested,” Schulman said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown left the courtroom without comment. Many involved in the case say it was Brown’s integrity that resulted in the second preliminary hearing.

Last year, Municipal Judge Eugene C. Langhauser had ordered the three brothers bound over to stand trial on the charges.

Charges Dismissed

But Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom dismissed the charges after Brown informed the court that one Sheriff’s Department investigator had withheld some important notes from the defense. But no one would have known about the omission if Brown had not asked investigators to double-check to make sure no notes were missing.

Brown said the investigator was simply guilty of an oversight. But defense lawyers claimed that the Sheriff’s Department was trying to protect Bennigsdorf and Stripe.

Whatever the case, the notes were a factor.

One neighbor, Katherine Dolan, had told defense lawyers she saw the sheriff’s deputies severely beating Monte on the head with their batons. But the lawyers did not call her as a witness at the first preliminary hearing. The official report did not reflect that she had seen what had happened, and defense lawyers said they feared Brown could challenge her credibility.

But the missing notes did show that Dolan had told officers that excessive force was used on Monte. So the lawyers had her testify at this month’s preliminary hearing. And Judge Jameson said her testimony, plus that of other neighbors, was a factor.

Schulman also criticized the Sheriff’s Department for its investigation of the shooting, claiming it was a conflict of interest.

Procedure Changed

Actually, if such an incident occurred now, the Sheriff’s Department would not handle the investigation. The Board of Supervisors voted last year to put the district attorney’s office in charge of the investigation any time an incident involving the Sheriff’s Department results in a death.

Prosecutor Brown earlier had praised the Sheriff’s Department, however, for making a thorough investigation without bias in favor of Bennigsdorf and Stripe.

Stokke, Schulman and Brower are considered to be among the best criminal defense attorneys in the county. George Slender, the father, said the legal fees “have left me busted, but it’s been worth it.”