Orly Lapin Testifies She Feared for Her Daughter

Orly Lapin testified Thursday that she went into hiding with her two children last year because she believed that the judicial system would not protect her daughter from molestation by her ex-husband, Santa Ana surgeon Ron Lapin.

“I had absolutely no choice but protect my children,” said the 31-year-old actress, who speaks with a strong Israeli accent. “It was an emergency.”

She is charged with kidnaping her 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son in July, 1987, when they were in the doctor’s legal custody. Orly Lapin took the witness stand Thursday to explain calmly but nervously why she feared that her ex-husband was sexually molesting their daughter.

Touching Incident

Her testimony included the new revelation that she had witnessed one brief touching incident herself.

But prosecutors had plenty to say in their attempt to discredit her version of the family situation, and after four hours on the witness stand she began to lose her composure, shouting at the prosecutor and arguing with the judge.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth O. Chinn introduced evidence that Orly Lapin, while in hiding with her children, wrote a letter to an Israeli women’s magazine titled: “Dr. Lapin--Genius or Crook?” The letter, which Chinn read in court, accused her ex-husband of homosexuality, child abuse, malpractice as a surgeon and a life of drug and alcohol abuse.

Intent of Letter

“Isn’t it true, Mrs. Lapin, that you (sent the letter) with the purpose of trying to destroy Dr. Lapin?” Chinn asked.

“No. Not true,” she answered angrily.

She said Ron Lapin had a reputation in Israel as a famous surgeon. He had become known in medical circles for his success with so-called bloodless surgery--a form of surgery that is favored by some religious groups opposed to transfusions because the patient loses very little blood.

Orly Lapin said she still loved him then but wanted people in Israel to know he needed help.

Chinn questioned her repeatedly about her failure on several occasions to report the episodes of sexual abuse she is now claiming Ron Lapin was involved in.

She was arrested last November when investigators found her and her children living in Paso Robles under assumed names. One of the investigators has testified that she wanted the children to go back to her ex-husband and that she said she had made up the accusations of child molestation.

She denied ever saying that and explained: “They were talking about taking my children to a foster home; I was so confused, the kids were clinging to my neck and crying and I was afraid what was going to happen to them. I don’t know what I said.”

She testified that she never meant to keep the children away from Ron Lapin permanently but only until he got some help for alleged mental problems. Then, she said, she hoped for a reconciliation.

Argument Over Letter

Chinn pointed out a long love letter she wrote to her ex-husband on Oct. 10, 1987, the day after she wrote the letter to the Israeli magazine, and asked why there was no reference to the molestation she supposedly saw or to seeking help for his mental state.

“Do I have to say it every time, in every letter?” she asked, glaring at the prosecutor.

At first, she refused to answer questions about excerpts from the letter. She turned to Judge David H. Brickner and told him firmly: “I read the entire letter, every page, or not at all.”

The judge, however, insisted that she follow whatever questioning format the prosecutor chose.

Chinn asked why she did not tell the first investigating officer, who came to the house in June, 1987, about seeing any act of molestation. She replied that she did--and did not know why it was not in the officer’s report.

Her attorney, John Horwitz, pointed out that the next two officers who came to see her did have the accusation in their report--and that they reported that Orly Lapin told them she had said the same thing to the first officer.

Chinn asked her if she was trying to use the children to force a reconciliation with her ex-husband.

“No,” she said indignantly. “I would never do such a thing.”

Ron Lapin has denied the accusations of molestation. The children have remained in his care since Orly Lapin’s arrest.

Orly Lapin said problems between her and Ron Lapin became serious in March, 1987, when “he had the alcohol problem, and all this mental craziness.” She claims that he forced her out of the house and that she moved temporarily into a hotel.

She also claims that he tricked her into signing an agreement that gave him custody of the children during the week on a permanent basis, leaving her with custody only on weekends. She said she thought that was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement.

In June, 1987, she claimed Thursday, she saw a “split-second” of improper touching of the girl by Ron Lapin when she was staying at his house temporarily after a fire at her residence in Palm Springs. She also said she learned from a baby-sitter that Lapin had been sleeping with the girl naked every night and insisted on bathing the girl himself.

The baby-sitter already has testified. She said she saw Lapin touch his daughter’s private parts while giving her a bath and added that she frequently found the girl sleeping naked in Lapin’s bed with him. The baby-sitter also has testified that Lapin raped her, resulting in a pregnancy.

After talking with the baby-sitter in 1987, Orly Lapin said, she took her two children to a pediatrician for examination and then to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist’s report further convinced her, she said, that Ron Lapin should be separated from the girl.

The psychiatrist, she said, expressed concern about the possibility that her daughter had been molested, although he was unable to say for certain that that had occurred.

Orly Lapin testified that she decided to go into hiding after an unsuccessful attempt in court on July 10, 1987, to win sole custody of her children, leaving her ex-husband with only monitored visitation rights.

Court records show that on that date a judge refused to issue an emergency custody order and issued a later hearing date on the matter. But by then, Orly Lapin was already gone.

Late Thursday afternoon, the prosecution called a rebuttal witness in an attempt to discredit the baby-sitter’s allegations. Jeanne Jones, who said she is a longtime, close friend of Ron Lapin, testified that the baby-sitter always spoke admiringly of the doctor.

Her testimony is scheduled to continue when the trial resumes Monday.