Defense Witness in Lapin Trial Says Doctor Molested Daughter

A former baby-sitter led off the defense testimony at Orly Lapin’s child kidnap trial Tuesday with revelations that she saw Lapin’s ex-husband molest his 3-year-old daughter and that she herself was raped by the ex-husband, a Santa Ana surgeon, and recently gave birth to his baby.

Orly Lapin, a 31-year-old actress and former Israeli beauty queen, is charged with kidnaping her daughter and year-old son last July when they were in the court-ordered custody of her former husband, Dr. Ron Lapin. She claims that she ran off with the children during their two-week summer visit with her because she believed that her ex-husband had been molesting their daughter.

Prosecutor Kenneth O. Chinn told the jury last week that he believed that Orly Lapin had made up the molestation story to win court favor in her bitter custody feud with her ex-husband.

Many of the disclosures by the baby-sitter came as a surprise to Chinn. “This is all extremely sensitive right now,” the deputy district attorney said later, declining further comment.

‘Cried and Cried and Cried’

The trial is being held in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana.

The baby-sitter, a woman in her late 20s who was employed by Dr. Lapin, testified that Orly Lapin “cried and cried and cried” last summer when the baby-sitter told her about her ex-husband’s conduct with their daughter.

The baby-sitter was followed on the witness stand by a psychiatrist who testified that he believed that there was “some evidence” that the girl had been sexually molested by her father and that Orly Lapin was distraught about it.

The baby-sitter testified Tuesday that Dr. Lapin repeatedly touched the girl’s private parts when giving her a bath. She said she bathed his son, but that Lapin insisted on bathing the girl himself. The baby-sitter, who lived in the doctor’s home, added that the girl and the doctor regularly slept together in his bed.

That testimony sent Orly Lapin into hysterics, and she had to be helped from the courtroom. Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner called a short recess to give her time to compose herself.

But soon after the trial resumed, it was the baby-sitter who broke down and sobbed when she reached a point in her testimony where she claimed that Lapin raped her.

“He stood outside my door and say, ‘Let me in,’ and I say, ‘No, no, it is too late,’ ” the Spanish-speaking woman told jurors in broken English. “He say he make the door fall down, so I let him in. He has a gun and he is naked and, and . . . he rape me.”

Lapin’s attorney, Dennis M. McNerney, was in court for most of the testimony. But when called at his office later, McNerney declined to comment on Tuesday’s court testimony. Lapin testified for the prosecution last week that he has never molested his daughter.

The 48-year-old surgeon became well known in medical circles a few years ago for his success with so-called bloodless surgery--operations performed without blood transfusions--which was favored by religious groups opposed to transfusions. But the state medical board frowned on the controversial technique and filed a malpractice claim against him. The claim was eventually dropped when Lapin agreed to stop that type of surgery.

Not Permitted in Court

Lapin is not permitted in court because he is a witness in the case against his ex-wife, and he testified last week. But he conferred in the hallways Tuesday with McNerney during the baby-sitter’s testimony.

The baby-sitter, a Mexican national, testified that Lapin threatened to either kill her or get her in trouble with immigration authorities if she told anyone that it was he who bathed the girl and that the young girl slept in his bed. She also indicated that he raped her on more than one occasion.

She also testified that she gave birth earlier this summer and has filed a paternity suit with the Orange County district attorney’s office claiming that Lapin fathered the child during a rape.

The baby-sitter cried again when she told the jury that last November Lapin beat her and kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant.

Chinn asked her on cross-examination why she had not informed the police last summer about the alleged rape and molestation of the Lapin daughter.

“I didn’t want to tell nobody because he (Lapin) really scare me,” she said. “He hit me and tell me what to say.”

Later, outside the presence of the jury, defense attorneys angrily accused the prosecution of failing to disclose all the relevant evidence in the case. Under general rules of discovery, they said the prosecutor should have told the defense of the paternity suit against Lapin and that a police report from the alleged November beating existed.

Didn’t Know of Claims

John Horwitz, one of Orly Lapin’s lawyers, said the only way the defense even knew about the baby-sitter’s claims was when she came forward to talk with them after reading about the kidnap trial in The Times.

Chinn’s response was that he was unaware of the assault report. As for the paternity suit, he said he deliberately avoided inquiring about details of the suit because those documents are confidential and it was not his case.

Judge Brickner has so far turned down the defense request for dismissal. But he did ask Chinn to produce the file on the paternity suit, to see whether it contained information that should have been turned over to the defense.

The baby-sitter was not the only woman to lambaste Dr. Lapin from the witness stand Tuesday. The defense also called his first wife, Maureen Lapin, an actress, and Leslie Murray, a legal secretary who said she was Lapin’s mistress for three years during his marriage to Orly Lapin.

Both women told jurors that the surgeon was a liar and dishonest. Murray testified that he lied to her throughout their relationship about not being married. She said she broke off with him when she found out he really was married. She also testified that Lapin regularly used illicit drugs.

Another of Orly Lapin’s attorneys, Harold Horwitz, asked Maureen Lapin: “On a scale of one to 10, 10 being most truthful, and one being least truthful, how would you rate Dr. Lapin for truthfulness?”

“A one,” Maureen Lapin said.

‘No Comprehension of Truth’

Horwitz asked a similar question of Murray. “He has no comprehension of truth, none whatsoever,” Murray responded.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Justin D. Call, who is chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at UC Irvine, testified that Orly Lapin brought the two children to see him in June, 1987, less than a month before she ran off with them. Call claims that the daughter suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder related to her father. The psychiatrist added that there were signs she had been sexually molested. But he added that he did not have enough time with the girl to reach a diagnosis that she was an incest victim. Before he could have any follow-up visits, Orly Lapin disappeared with the children.

Orly Lapin was arrested last November, when she was discovered living with the children in Paso Robles under an assumed name.

The Lapins’ bitter divorce has led to accusations on both sides. Dr. Lapin claimed that his ex-wife made a bomb threat to an Anaheim bank in which he had a financial interest. She was tried on that charge before a Fullerton jury last year and acquitted. He also accused her of pouring sugar into the gas tank of his Mercedes-Benz, but that charge against her was later dismissed. The two children are still in Dr. Lapin’s custody.

Orly Lapin is expected to be the defense’s final witness today.