New Trial Sought in Billionaire Club Case

Arguing that he made “a big mistake” in pleading guilty earlier this month to charges related to the 1984 slaying of a Beverly Hills con man, Billionaire Boys Club bodyguard James Pittman wants to withdraw his plea and ask for a new trial.

In a court motion filed earlier this week, Pittman’s lawyers argue that their client very reluctantly pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact in the slaying of Ron Levin only after “the repeated urgings” of his lawyers.

“His plea was involuntary,” Pittman’s attorney, Jeff Brodey, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “His will was overcome by his counsel, who thought it was in his best interest to plead guilty.” Brodey was referring to himself and to Pittman’s other lawyer.

As the suspected triggerman in Levin’s slaying, Pittman was originally charged with murder and robbery. After two juries failed to reach a verdict, however, a plea bargain was arranged allowing Pittman to plead guilty to the accessory charge and an additional charge of possessing a concealed weapon. These lesser charges carried a maximum sentence of less than three years, time which Pittman has already served in jail.

‘We Implored Him’

“The consequences of being found guilty as charged . . . as opposed to a ‘time-served’ sentence if Mr. Pittman entered a plea of guilty to the accessory charge was so great that we implored him to accept an opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser offense,” Brodey wrote in the court motion. If convicted of first-degree murder in a new trial, Pittman could face a life sentence without parole.

“I thought and still think it is a very good disposition,” Brodey said of the plea bargain. But, he added, “Pittman doesn’t think he will ever be convicted, that the evidence is strong supporting his innocence.”

Another consideration in withdrawing the guilty plea, Brodey surmised, is that a previous conviction could negatively effect another trial awaiting Pittman in Northern California, where he is charged with the 1984 kidnap-murder of wealthy Iranian Hedayat Eslaminia.

In the court motion, Brodey and co-counsel Barry Greenhalgh argued that Pittman did not want to accept the plea bargain.

“Pittman’s desire was to go to trial again,” Brodey said. “Only after the repeated urgings of myself and Mr. Greenhalgh did he agree.”

The lawyers had four lengthy conferences with Pittman on the day of the pleading, and each time he told them that he did not want to plead guilty, Brodey recalled Thursday. Although the lawyers prevailed, Brodey said that within a few hours after he pleaded guilty, Pittman called Brodey and told him he wanted to withdraw his plea.

“He thought he had made a big mistake, that he was not guilty, that he had not done anything, and that he wanted to withdraw his plea,” Brodey said.

The motion is expected to be considered on Tuesday, when Pittman is scheduled to go before Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht for sentencing. Pittman will ask to withdraw his guilty plea and that a new trial be set.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Wapner declined to discuss the case, saying it would be inappropriate because it is still pending before the court. But he did say that he would argue that the guilty plea stand.

The motion to change a plea is not altogether unusual, but it is rarely granted, according to Brodey. “I’m not real optimistic that judge Albracht is going to grant” the request, he said.