L.A. Law

What a twist: Attorney Jeffrey Melczer represents Joe Hunt, former leader of the infamous Billionaire Boys Club who was convicted of murdering Bev Hills entrepreneur Ron Levin. Melczer also once represented . . . Ron Levin. And Levin’s family is furious about it.

Melczer was in court for Hunt last week seeking--unsuccessfully--to block NBC from airing the “Billionaire Boys Club” miniseries (it begins tonight), claiming it might prejudice a jury in another related murder charge pending against Hunt.

In 1984, Melczer represented Hunt’s murder victim (Levin’s body was never found) when Levin was trying to launch several news services and couldn’t get press credentials from various public agencies to cover the 1984 presidential election. The reason: Levin was charged in 1983 for grand theft of some $1 million in film and video equipment that he allegedly received but didn’t pay for. He disappeared before legal proceedings on that case were completed and the press-credential brouhaha was resolved.

Ron’s brother, attorney Robert Levin, called Melczer’s change of affiliation “turning the knife in the wound” in the family’s suffering over the Hunt case: “I think it’s a moral conflict of interest. I don’t see how you can zealously represent the interests of both murderer and victim. . . . You cannot help overlapping information which came to your attention in a confidential jury-client relationship.”

Melczer contends there is no conflict, since the matters are unrelated. And, he added, blocking the airing of the programs couldn’t have harmed Levin “unless he contributed to the miniseries in some way, or collaborated with NBC--which would mean that he is still alive, and therefore my client (Hunt) could not be guilty of his murder.”