For What It’s Worth, 1986 Is History : COURTSIDE

Finished Business

After being convicted in a retrial, Ex-FBI agent Richard Miller was sentenced to two life terms for attempting to sell secrets to his lover, a Soviet spy.

Cathy Evelyn Smith, a former rock groupie, finally pleaded no contest in the drug overdose death of comedian John Belushi and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Unfinished Business

Pretrial hearings, including a defense motion for a change of venue, continued in the case of alleged Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, accused of 14 murders and 31 other felonies during the summer of 1985.

The long-running “Twilight Zone” manslaughter trial, replete with bizarre twists and incessant name-calling between attorneys, has dragged on since September, with more than 50 prosecution witnesses taking the stand to testify about the film set deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors. The stars have also come out in force, making cameo courtroom appearances in support of the Twilight Five: director John Landis and four Hollywood cohorts. As the case enters its fifth month, the list of spectators already includes such actors as Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy and Jeff Goldblum and film directors Michael Ritchie, David Cronenberg and Paul Bartel.

Left facing 101 counts involving 14 students in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case were Peggy McMartin Buckey and her son, Ray Buckey. Said Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner after announcing that charges were being dropped against school founder Virginia McMartin, Peggy Ann Buckey, Betty Raidor, Mary Ann Jackson and Babette Spitler: “There is strong, compelling evidence that two . . . are guilty. The evidence against the others is incredibly weak.” And a former McMartin prosecutor, Glenn Stevens, joined the defense in proclaiming the innocence of all seven and signed a movie contract based on his story.

Dismissals

In January, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner declared that he was dropping charges against five of the seven defendants in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case. A month later, Reiner announced that his office would recommend dismissal of an indictment against Rep. Bobbie Fiedler for an alleged state Election Code felony. Reiner also sought to send accused Domino’s Pizza killers Carlton Sims and Ruby Padgett back to South Carolina to first face trial there on similar murder charges--a move rejected by Gov. George Deukmejian, who said that the evidence in their Glendale case might get stale.

The Verdict Is In

In some of the highest jury awards to high-profile plaintiffs:

Raquel Welch won $10.8 million from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in her suit charging the studio breached her contract when it replaced her with Debra Winger in the film, “Cannery Row.”

A jury awarded ventriloquist Paul Winchell $17.8 million in his claim that irreplaceable copies of his “Winchell Mahoney Time” show were destroyed in a dispute over licensing rights.

Stunt woman Heidi Von Beltz was awarded $4.5 million for paralyzing injuries she suffered on the set of the film “Cannonball Run,” a prelude to more than half a dozen suits filed against the film industry over dangerous set practices, echoing the long-running “Twilight Zone” trial.

The largest--and most controversial--verdict went to former Church of Scientology member Larry Wollersheim, who was awarded $30 million in his claim that the church drove him to the edge of insanity and ruined him financially for criticizing the group.

And the courts were clogged with other lawsuits. Among them: Heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne was defending himself against a suit filed by the family of an Indio teen-ager who killed himself after listening to Osbourne’s song, “Suicide Solution.” A judge threw the case out in early December, despite the family’s claims that hidden lyrics in the song urged listeners to “Get the gun and try it, shoot, shoot, shoot.” The widow of James Huberty, who was gunned down by police after a 1984 shooting spree at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro that left 21 people dead, sued the fast-food chain for $5 million, claiming that monosodium glutamate in its hamburgers helped prompt her husband’s violent outburst.