Woman Says Lawyer Helped in Murder Plot

A Canoga Park woman accused of paying two Los Angeles police officers to murder her ex-husband has testified that her divorce attorney was aware of her intentions and played a part in the scheme.

Janie E. Ogilvie said Monday that the attorney, Ronald F. Brot of Chatsworth, recommended that she hire as a killer a man named “No Neck,” who purportedly had ties to organized crime. Ogilvie has testified that Brot also played a role in delivering a payment to the two men who were eventually hired to kill her former husband, Thomas Weed.

Brot, who has not been charged in the case, refused to comment when reached at his office Monday. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert P. O’Neill, the prosecutor, also declined to discuss Brot’s alleged involvement.

Ogilvie, 45, the key prosecution witness against former Officers Robert Anthony Von Villas and Richard Herman Ford, has testified about Brot over the past several days while being cross-examined by Donald Feinberg, one of Von Villas’ two attorneys, in Van Nuys Superior Court.

$20,000 Payment

Ogilvie admitted that she paid nearly $20,000 to Brot and talked with him repeatedly by telephone around the time that Weed disappeared. Ogilvie had previously testified that she paid the $20,000 to Ford and Von Villas in three installments beginning in February, 1983.

“Ms. Ogilvie, do you think it’s just a coincidence that you claim that you paid $20,000 for the murder of your husband and you paid Mr. Brot almost that exact figure?” Feinberg asked.

“I think that’s a coincidence. . . . It has to be a coincidence,” she responded. Ogilvie said she believed that the nearly $20,000 in payments to Brot covered his fees for representing her in divorce and civil proceedings against Weed at the time of Weed’s disappearance.

The defense attorney’s strategy apparently is an attempt to discredit Ogilvie’s statements that she paid Ford and Von Villas to kill Weed. Feinberg used Ogilvie’s bank records to establish that she made payments to Brot and used her telephone bills to establish that she made a series of calls to him, including an 85-minute call the day before Weed disappeared and a 77-minute call the day of his disappearance.

Details Forgotten

Ogilvie testified that she could not remember what she and Brot talked about.

“Isn’t it a fact, Ms. Ogilvie, that you and Mr. Brot conceived of a plan to take care of your husband--to permanently eliminate your husband?” Feinberg asked.

“That’s not true,” Ogilvie answered.

“Isn’t it true that Mr. Brot told you he had a person named ‘No Neck’ who was involved with organized crime who could do the killing?” Feinberg asked.

“Yes, at one time,” Ogilvie responded.

“And isn’t it a fact that as you sit here, you are still afraid, still fearful, of drawing any connection between Mr. Brot and what happened to your husband because of what could happen to you?” Feinberg asked.

“No,” she responded.

Feinberg said he plans to subpoena Brot later in the trial.

Ogilvie has testified that around Feb. 17 she gave Brot $5,000 for the second of three money drops requested by Von Villas, who she said told her to put the money through the open window of a car parked behind a Reseda gas station.

Ogilvie said Brot volunteered to make the drop after she told him that she “just wasn’t in any shape to drive or to make the arrangement.” Ogilvie said she gave Brot the money at a Marina del Rey restaurant.

About 11 that night, Von Villas, identifying himself by the code name Mr. Ory, called to ask where the money was, Ogilvie testified. When she confronted Brot, she said, he told her: “I bought cocaine with the money.”

Von Villas, 44, and Ford, 48, are being tried before Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp. If convicted, the former officers, who resigned from the Police Department after their arrest, could receive the death penalty or be sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Weed, 52, disappeared Feb. 23, 1983, from his Northridge apartment. His body has never been found, but prosecutors allege that he was killed by Ford and Von Villas and buried in the desert. After his disappearance, Weed’s car was found in a parking lot at Los Angeles International Airport.

Ogilvie was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder because of her cooperation with prosecutors.