‘Billionaire Boys Club’--A Legal Challenge : Lawyers Debate Impact of Sunday’s NBC Docudrama on Current and Future Criminal Trials

They sought wealth, fame and social status. What they found instead was a shocking sequence of events that left their charismatic leader, his bodyguard and two others of their organization charged with murder.

Sunday and next Monday, NBC will present “The Billionaire Boys Club,” a two-part docudrama based on the lives of the members of that ill-fated club, a fraternity of the ambitious sons of some of Southern California’s more affluent families.

The legal battles made headlines when the leader of the club, Joe Hunt, stood trial for the murder of Ron Levin, the man who left Hunt bankrupt by involving the so-called Billionaire Boys Club in a fraudulent commodities scheme. On July 6, Joe Hunt was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the murder of Levin.

Jim Pittman, Hunt’s bodyguard, is also charged in the Levin murder. A Santa Monica Superior Court jury is currently deliberating his case.

The lawyers are fighting again over the Billionaire Boys Club--but this time it’s over the miniseries and how it may affect courtroom trials. Although Hunt is convicted for Levin’s murder, he is yet to stand trial for a related murder. And other cases involving other members of the club are still in progress or pending. Attorneys charge that NBC may be interfering with their clients’ right to a fair trial.

Some of those attorneys have sent letters of protest to NBC. And Wednesday, an attorney for Hunt filed suit against NBC to block the network from airing “Billionaire Boys Club” Sunday. Earlier, NBC did delay by one week its planned broadcast of the program.

The network maintains that the series is based on public record and does not constitute an undue risk to anyone’s right to a fair trial.

“We feel very strongly that we have researched this accurately,” said Donald Zachary, NBC vice president, law. “And the (cases being tried) in Northern California are not the major focus of the program. The focus is Joe Hunt.

“Joe Hunt is now what we lawyers call libel-proof.”

Zachary said that the network is making no alternate programming plans because of the suit. “We do not expect them to succeed,” he said.

Hunt and two other associates of the Billionaire Boys Club, Reza Eslaminia and Ben Dosti (son of a Times food writer), are all either currently on trial or scheduled to go on trial in the Bay Area for the murder-kidnaping of Eslaminia’s father, Hedayat Eslaminia, in a scheme to get the elder Eslaminia to sign his fortune over to his son.

Jeffrey Melczer, the attorney representing Hunt in the suit against NBC, contends that Hunt is not libel-proof, since his guilt or innocence in Hedayat Eslaminia’s death has yet to be determined.

Declining to say why Hunt waited until last week to file suit, Melczer called the miniseries “disinformation.” “It (the series) defends Joe Hunt the myth rather than Joe Hunt the reality,” he said. “Fact and fiction are merged here.

“You may ultimately have Joe Hunt becoming a character like John Dillinger, or Bonnie and Clyde. Who knows what they did or didn’t do? That’s what’s going to happen to Joe Hunt. Pittman will have the same problem.”

The jury has been deliberating Pittman’s fate since Oct. 19 in his trial for the murder of Ron Levin. Jeff Brody, Pittman’s attorney, said it is not probable, but still possible, that the jury could still be out when the show airs Sunday.

Brody pointed out that promotional spots for “Billionaire Boys Club,” which NBC began airing Oct. 25, could be seen by Pittman’s jury before it reached a verdict regardless of the postponement. He charged that the ads could influence the jury.

“We call it ‘the hated NBC miniseries,’ ” said Brody. “It could have a disastrous effect on my case. To televise a dramatization of the events before all the cases have been decided is highly prejudicial, and highly irresponsible.”

Except for Hunt and Dean Karny, a Billionaire Boys Club member granted immunity for his testimony, the names of all others involved were changed in the script. Pittman is called Frank Booker. Zachary said that although the essential chronology, facts and events are accurate, the script contains some composite characters who are members of the club and “although it is a fact-based drama, it does not purport to be a documentary.”

Zachary said NBC plans to broadcast the programs even if Pittman is found innocent this week. However, he said the network will not re-run the miniseries if Pittman is exonerated. Brody said Pittman would probably sue NBC for libel if he is found innocent.

A written request from Brody spurred NBC to move the working air date from Nov. 1 and 2 to Sunday and next Monday. The network would not agree to delay the miniseries until after all cases have been completed, however.

Zachary said that NBC agreed to change the air date to accommodate the Pittman case but that “it was not a case of the tail wagging the dog. I went to the program people and said, all things being equal--of course, things never are--a week certainly can’t hurt.”

After a request from Dosti’s attorney, Tom Nolan, to postpone the series until after Dosti’s trial in Northern California, the network considered blacking out the docudrama in the San Francisco area, Zachary confirmed. NBC decided against doing so, however, he said.

“It certainly shows that NBC doesn’t care about the rights of those accused, they only care about being first on the air (with the Billionaire Boys Club story),” Nolan said.

Zachary said, “We thought it was unnecessary to (black out the series in San Francisco) primarily because we recognize that judges have been able to handle trial matters with (prior publicity) far in excess of what you would expect to get in this case. . . .

“The judge can instruct the jury, as judges traditionally do, and can sequester the jury for the two nights the show is on, if necessary,” Zachary continued

Melczer maintains that sequestering the jury would not prevent word-of-mouth from affecting the jury and that jurors might be exposed to videotapes of the programs. Brody suggested that a TV dramatization could be more prejudicial than news coverage.

Some attorneys involved in the Billionaire Boys Club cases believe that the miniseries could be especially prejudicial to a jury because the scriptwriter used not only court documents but also police documents that might not be used as evidence in court.

The miniseries is based on reporter Sue Horton’s upcoming book, “The Pied Piper of Beverly Hills,” an expansion of her May, 1986, Los Angeles Magazine article. The docudrama was produced in association with NBC by Tough Boys Inc. and ITC Productions. The script was written by Gy Waldron. Tough Boys bought rights to Horton’s story after the magazine article appeared, but did not start production until Hunt was convicted.

Transcripts of Pittman’s preliminary hearing were also used, and Brody believes that although they are part of the public record the series gives that information unfair exposure. “How many people come down to the court and look up transcripts? No one does,” he said.

Brody believes that the most damaging element to his client is Waldron’s use of material from interviews from three former members of the Billionaire Boys Club who were not charged with any crime--Tom and Dave May and Evan Dicker.

Brody also believes that testimony in new trials could be different from that in Hunt’s first trial and that the series could lock the earlier testimony in the jurors’ minds. The May brothers together were paid a total of $65,000 for their participation in the docudrama, they confirmed. Dicker was paid a fee, according to sources, but the figure was unavailable.

Waldron said that the interviews with the Mays and Dicker were used to illuminate personality traits and details necessary for dramatization and that any information from interviews that differed markedly from court transcripts was not used. (Waldron had 14,600 court documents and transcripts and 2,000 police documents at his disposal, he said). “We weren’t shooting from the hip on any of this,” he said.

A former Billionaire Boys Club member who was interviewed for the docudrama but who asked that his name not be used said he felt satisfied with Waldron’s intention. “I felt that it was very important to him to portray it not only as the facts, but the reasons why people became involved, the reasons people did everything,” he said.

“It was much more than a bunch of rich boys running around doing things, it was also why.”