Doctor Who Demanded Fee Takes Stand

A Santa Monica physician, named on an arrest warrant when he refused to testify at a murder trial unless he got a $500 fee, surrendered Thursday to the Orange County judge presiding in the case.

An attorney for Dr. David Dantes told Superior Court Judge James L. Smith that Dantes now intends to cooperate as a witness in the murder trial of Michael Wesley Reding.

Reding faces four counts of second-degree murder for allegedly driving while intoxicated and causing a car accident that killed a Fullerton mother and her three children on Oct. 23, 1984.

Smith immediately set a contempt hearing for June 13 to determine whether the doctor was properly served a subpoena. Dantes’ attorney, David Ogden, said his client had not seen a process server, although the court already has heard evidence to the contrary.

Dantes, 40, an emergency room specialist who treated Reding at St. Jude Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Fullerton, took the witness stand Thursday to conclude a hearing in the Reding case that had been halted several days because of Dante’s absence. The hearing was held out of the presence of the jury.

No Action Before June 13

The judge said he doesn’t expect to take any action against Dantes before the June 13 contempt hearing. Dantes could be fined or sentenced to a jail term, the judge said. After Dantes received word that his testimony was needed at Reding’s pretrial hearing, he told defense attorney Heidi Mueller that he wanted a $500 fee, Mueller said.

“We didn’t want him as an expert witness,” Mueller said. “But he is entitled to nothing, just like everybody else who may stand on a curb and witness a drunk driver. You have to go to court, and you lose a day’s wages.”

After Dantes testified Thursday, he refused to talk to reporters on advice of his attorney. “He can’t say anything,” Ogden said. “Contempt is a criminal charge, and I’ve instructed him not to comment.”

Although Dantes Thursday failed to identify Reding, he said the man he treated at St. Jude’s had suffered broken ribs, numerous cuts, a partially collapsed lung and a severe laceration on his chin and an injury to his tongue.

But the doctor disagreed with a defense contention that Reding was suicidal that night. The defense is seeking to show that Reding was not in control of his faculties because of concern about a prior car accident, was lapsing in and out of consciousness, and never fully understood his right to remain silent without his attorney present.

Described as ‘Remorseful’

Reding was emotional and had stated, “Please let me die,” Dantes said. But when Reding’s other attorney, David Haigh, asked if Reding was suicidal, Dantes responded, “I disagree with that. I would characterize it more as remorseful.”

After the hearing, the judge ruled that some statements Reding had made to police at the hospital were inadmissible because they violated Reding’s right to remain silent.

The trial will resume Monday.