Disputed Police Search Holds Up Murder Trial

The start of the murder trial of Billionaire Boys Club leader Joe Hunt in Santa Monica was delayed Tuesday because of a flap over a police search of a home where Hunt had been staying.

The search, conducted by Northern California investigators and authorized by a judge in San Mateo County, where Hunt faces a separate murder trial, came as a surprise to the prosecutor as well as defense attorneys.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Laurence J. Rittenband said he wanted to review the materials seized Jan. 8 from a Bel-Air guest house belonging to Bobby and Lynn Roberts, the parents of Hunt’s girlfriend, Brooke Roberts.

Hunt’s attorneys have moved to have the Santa Monica case dismissed on grounds that the Northern California investigators, who were accompanied by Beverly Hills Police Detective Les Zoeller, illegally obtained access to 76 defense exhibits.

Co-defense counsel Arthur H. Barens said the material reveals “secrets” of their strategy, including sample cross-examination questions, and correspondence that will be used in efforts to impeach prosecution witnesses.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Wapner told the court, “I don’t accept for a minute Mr. Barens’ characterization of what they (investigators) read or what they saw.”

Wapner said in an interview that he learned of the search only after it was in progress, when Lynn Roberts telephoned the courtroom to speak to Hunt’s attorneys.

Jury selection was completed Tuesday for Hunt’s trial in the 1984 murder of Beverly Hills journalist and reputed con man Ron Levin. The prosecution alleges that Levin, whose body has never been found, was killed after he duped Hunt in a multimillion-dollar investment scheme. Judge Rittenband said the jurors would be called back to court Feb. 2.

Hunt, 27, is also scheduled to be tried in Redwood City on a murder charge in the death of Hedayat Eslaminia, whose son, Reza, also a defendant in that killing, was a member of Hunt’s organization. The Billionaire Boys Club has been described as a social and investment club for affluent young people.