Pilot’s Statements Opened to ‘Twilight’ Trial Inquiry

The judge in the “Twilight Zone” involuntary manslaughter trial ruled Tuesday that defendant Dorcey Wingo can be questioned about potentially damaging statements he made to investigators, even though Wingo had been assured at the time that his statements could not be used against him in court.

After a lengthy hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren declared that if helicopter pilot Wingo takes the witness stand, the prosecution can question him about two interviews with the National Transportation Safety Board that followed the fatal 1982 filming accident in which actors Vic Morrow and two children were killed.

Boren--who made several rulings Tuesday that appeared to help the prosecution--stated that he believes “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Wingo would have testified to the safety board even if investigator Abdon Llorente had not prefaced the session by noting that “none of the statements obtained in this investigation are admissible in any court of law.”

Boren made his ruling despite the fact that Wingo, taking the witness stand briefly without the jury present, asserted that he had relied on Llorente’s assurances before agreeing to be interviewed.

Wingo’s attorney, Eugene L. Trope, declined later to reveal whether Wingo will now testify in the long-running trial. If he does, his previous statements could possibly cast doubt on testimony by director John Landis, the first defendant to have taken the stand.

Landis told the jury last week that the crew undertook careful planning for the sequence that ended in the fatalities. But Wingo previously told the NTSB that “no one ever pointed out an explosive, a bomb, a fire bomb as we were calling them, to me. (There was) no explanation of where they were or really what they were going to do.”

Wingo, Landis and three associates are accused of criminal negligence in the deaths of the three actors, who were struck by the helicopter after it was engulfed by the fireball of a special effects explosion.

In another ruling, Boren declared that he will not allow the defense to call Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino before the jury to answer questions about her credibility and that of a key witness, production secretary Donna Schuman. Defense attorneys have accused D’Agostino of having perjured herself when she took the unusual step, early in the trial, of taking the stand herself without jurors present after she was accused of presenting false testimony from Schuman.

Boren stated that D’Agostino’s testimony would be of little value to jurors and could confuse them.

Boren also indicated that he will eventually give jurors an instruction requested by D’Agostino. While the defense has contended that their clients should not be held accountable if the cause was unforeseeable, Boren said he plans to tell jurors that “what is required to be reasonably foreseeable is the death of the victims, not the precise manner in which the deaths occured.”

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Harland Braun called this “a simpleton approach.”