Briton Agrees to Look Into Salomon Disappearances

A prominent British lawyer said he has agreed to review evidence in the 1982 disappearance and presumed murder of the four-member Sol Salomon family of Northridge to determine if it is sufficient to mount an extraordinary private prosecution for multiple murder in British courts.

The lawyer, Christopher Murray, is a partner in the London-based law firm of Kingsley Napley, which is headed by a leading British criminal lawyer, Sir David Napley.

Murray said in a telephone interview Monday that he has agreed to conduct the review at the request of an American private investigator, Joseph Sampson, who represents the mother of one of those who disappeared.

While most criminal prosecutions in Britain are initiated by a public prosecutor’s office as they are in this country, British law allows any citizen to initiate a criminal prosecution by applying to a court for an arrest warrant.

It also allows for the prosecution of British subjects for murders committed overseas.

Both suspects in the disappearances of the Salomons, Reseda car dealer Harvey Rader and his cousin, Ashley Paulle, are British.

Rader and Paulle were arrested by Los Angeles police in 1983 after Paulle made a series of statements to a Scotland Yard detective and later to Los Angeles police, accusing Rader of the murders and implicating himself as Rader’s aide.

Although the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office initially gave Paulle immunity from prosecution, it later revoked the immunity and prosecuted him for the Salomon murders and the 1982 presumed murders of Peter and Joan Davis, British subjects living in Granada Hills.

The district attorney’s office did not charge Rader, however, declaring there was insufficient evidence. Rader, who is now serving a three-year sentence in federal prison here for attempting to secure a passport in a phony name, has repeatedly asserted his innocence.

When American courts threw out the case against Paulle, declaring that the district attorney’s office improperly revoked Paulle’s immunity, Paulle returned to London, where he works as a taxi driver.

The district attorney’s office asked its British counterpart--the Crown Prosecution Service--to take up the case, according to a law enforcement source. But British prosecutors declined.

The private British lawyer, Murray, said from London: “Certainly one of the issues I’ve been asked to advise on is whether there is sufficient evidence to commence a prosecution against Paulle.”

But he declined to comment on whether he is also reviewing evidence against Rader, who is still regarded as a suspect by Los Angeles authorities.

“Until I have in front of me all the papers that I am being asked to advise on, it’s inadvisable to make any comment,” he said.

Murray said he was contacted recently by Sampson, the private investigator hired by Elaine Salomon’s mother, Marge Malerowitz.

Sampson, who has worked on the case for years, said Los Angeles authorities have consented to Murray’s reviewing the official file.

“They’ll get whatever they need,” said Detective Marvin Engquist. “We intend to cooperate with their efforts.”

Sampson said, “This is the ace I’ve held up my sleeve ever since I found out about the law in England” allowing private prosecutions.

Practice Common in England

Privately initiated prosecutions have long been common in England for certain minor offenses. Large department stores, for instance, have routinely brought shoplifting cases to court this way. However, an expert said, privately initiated prosecutions in serious cases are rare.

They are made possible because of a division of labor among British lawyers. Some of these lawyers are barristers--advocates who go to court and argue on behalf of a client. Others are solicitors, who prepare cases for the barristers.

Murray is a solicitor, as is the public prosecutor. If the public prosecutor wants to prosecute a case in court, he retains a barrister. So would Murray, if he decides to proceed and a court approves a private prosecution.

Barristers are supposed to be totally independent and can prosecute in one case and defend in another. Murray said he is not certain how long it will take him to decide on a course of action.