Orly Lapin Lawyer in Kidnaping Trial Alleges a Cover-Up

An attorney for a Santa Ana surgeon’s ex-wife cried “cover-up” Wednesday when it was learned that prosecutors in her trial on charges of kidnaping her children from her ex-husband had known for months of suspicions regarding his sexual conduct with one of the children.

Orly Lapin claims that she took the two children, a boy who was a year

old at the time and a girl who was 3, from Dr. Ron Lapin, who had legal custody, because she believed that he was sexually molesting the 3-year-old.

She took the witness stand briefly Wednesday afternoon to testify that she became worried about the children after listening to her daughter talk about her father’s genitals and after a conversation with a baby-sitter about Lapin’s conduct with the girl.

“My husband was very ill mentally,” she told the jury in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. She went on to say that her husband had been hospitalized for mental problems twice during their marriage.

In both testimony and documents presented in court, it was disclosed Wednesday that the baby-sitter had told the district attorney’s office in January about what she considered to be sexual conduct involving Lapin and his daughter.

Orly Lapin’s attorney, John Horwitz, claims that if he had known about that before the trial it would have aided his client’s defense. He also has questioned why prosecutors insisted on filing charges against his client in light of the baby-sitter’s statements.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth O. Chinn, the prosecutor in the case, said he was unaware of the baby-sitter’s accusations until the young woman testified in court Tuesday. But files from the district attorney’s office that were made public Wednesday show that others in the office were aware of the allegations.

“They knew, and nobody did a thing about it,” Horwitz said outside the courtroom.

According to testimony Wednesday, the baby-sitter’s accusations were made to an interviewer with the district attorney’s office when the baby-sitter filed a paternity suit against Lapin in January.

The baby-sitter, whose identity is not being revealed by The Times because of the nature of the case, claimed in her paternity suit that Lapin raped her and that she had become pregnant as a result.

The baby-sitter testified Tuesday that she saw Lapin touch his 3-year-old daughter’s private parts while giving her a bath and that he refused to let anyone else bathe the girl. She also said she frequently found the girl sleeping naked in Lapin’s bed with him.

The baby-sitter told the interviewer with the district attorney’s office in January about the bathing and sleeping arrangements. But she said then, in answer to a direct question, that she was not an eyewitness to any molestation, according to prosecution files.

The baby-sitter tried to explain that discrepancy Tuesday by saying she didn’t realize until after the interview that what she had seen amounted to molestation.

Dennis M. McNerney, an attorney representing Ron Lapin, said outside the courtroom Wednesday that his client admits having had a sexual relationship with the baby-sitter but denies that he raped her and that he is the father of her baby.

McNerney said after court Wednesday that Lapin is “sickened” by the accusations being made against him at his ex-wife’s trial.

“He feels frustrated that all he can do is just sit back and take it,” McNerney said. “He only hopes that the prosecutors can keep all this sorted out and get at the truth.”

McNerney confirmed that Lapin had been hospitalized at least once during his marriage but said it was for stress and alcohol abuse rather than mental problems.

In the courtroom, when Horwitz told Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner that his client was the victim of a cover-up, Brickner, who already had spent much of the morning arguing with Horwitz, asked sharply: “Who is covering up what?”

Horwitz responded: “The police have been biased against Mrs. Lapin and have favored Dr. Lapin for a very long time, and here is a concrete example of it.”

Dr. Lapin, 48, was given custody of the children in the spring of 1987, apparently in a court order to which Orly Lapin agreed.

But the 31-year-old actress testified Wednesday that she had signed such an agreement because she thought it was a prelude to a reconciliation with her husband.

She admits that she ran off with the children in July, 1987, and lived with them under an assumed name until she was caught and arrested last November.

The children since have been returned to Dr. Lapin’s custody. McNerney said county social workers have looked into Lapin’s home life with the children and are satisfied that the children are doing well.

Chinn, saying the case is sensitive, has declined to comment until after the trial on whether knowledge of the baby-sitter’s allegations would have made a difference in his decision to prosecute Orly Lapin.

But some county officials say there are too many discrepancies in the stories told by Orly Lapin and in the various accounts from the baby-sitter for them to make any decisions without further investigation.

“We can’t just run out to someone’s house and grab their kids on the strength of what one person says, especially when that person has a very, very strong ax to grind,” one official said.

Exchanges in court between the judge and the defense attorney became heated Wednesday when Horwitz asked for a continuance so he could try to round up other baby-sitters who had worked for Lapin to find out whether he had tried to force himself on any of them.

The judge let Horwitz have a couple of hours but insisted the trial get back on track in the afternoon.

Brickner said the rape allegation by the baby-sitter, who testified Tuesday, was irrelevant to the kidnaping trial because “you have offered no proof that he who rapes also (molests children).”

The judge added that he was reluctant to “dynamite the process of this trial to chase what I think is a wild goose.”