‘Twilight’ Prosecutor Gets Contempt Warning

The prosecutor in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter trial was warned Tuesday by the judge that she acted in a “contemptuous” fashion by repeatedly asking a witness questions that she had been previously ordered not to ask, according to a court transcript made available to The Times.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren told Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino that her actions on Monday, when questioning Los Angeles County fire safety officer Jack Rimmer, were “in violation of the court’s previous guidance, and it was contemptuous, and this is my warning on that.”

“The next time it happens by any counsel, I may just take the action of making you look bad in front of the jury, or I may find you in contempt separately and apart, or both,” Boren added. “That goes for everybody, but I believe that question yesterday was uncalled for and should not have been asked.”

The judge’s pointed remarks were made during a bench conference with D’Agostino and defense attorneys held out of earshot of the public and the jury.

Reference to Prosecutor

In his comments, Boren was referring to D’Agostino’s persistent attempts Monday to ask Rimmer--who was employed on the film set on the night of the fatal, 1982, filming accident that took the lives of star Vic Morrow and two child actors--whether he would have halted the filming if he knew that special-effects explosives had been placed under a hut in a mock Vietnam village.

Director John Landis and four associates face manslaughter charges in the deaths of the actors, who were killed when struck by a low-flying helicopter that spun out of control after being hit by a fireball from the special-effects explosives.

Early in Monday’s session, Boren had specifically ruled that D’Agostino could not question Rimmer about the subject because he had limited expertise concerning helicopter hazards.