Gionis Was Set to Flee, Police Say : Hurried Arrest of Aissa Wayne’s Ex-Mate Explained

Newport Beach police said today they hurriedly arrested a Pomona surgeon suspected of ordering an attack on his ex-wife, Aissa Wayne, because it appeared that he was preparing to flee the country.

Police said the surgeon, Thomas A. Gionis, had been making telephone calls to Greece, had obtained a passport for himself last January and last month obtained a passport for his 2-year-old daughter, Anastasia.

“We feared he would flee the country and take the child with him,” said Sgt. Mike Jackson, one of the investigators assigned to the case.

Gionis, 35, who owns a string of five clinics from Beverly Hills to Palm Springs, was involved in an unusually bitter child custody battle with Wayne, 32, the daughter of actor John Wayne, when the attack occurred last October.

According to police, two men approached Wayne and her companion, financier Roger Luby, in the garage of Luby’s Newport Beach home, beat them and slashed one of Luby’s Achilles’ tendons.

‘Next Time We Kill You’

One of the attackers told Wayne, “You’re (messing) with the wrong guy. Next time we kill you,” police said.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of being the attackers. An arrest warrant has been issued for a Los Angeles private investigator, O. Daniel Gal, who worked on behalf of Gionis in the custody case and who police say arranged for the attack.

Gal is believed to be in Europe, where police are trying to locate him, Newport Beach police said.

Gionis eventually won custody of the couple’s child, Anastasia. Wayne said, however, that she would confer with her lawyers today to reopen the custody case.

Three Newport Beach officers watched Gionis’ home in Pomona on Tuesday night and arrested him when he drove up in his chauffeured limousine, police said today during a press conference. Gionis was returning from a business trip to New York, they said.

He was taken to Newport Beach City Jail, where he was held without bail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon.

Police said records of Gionis’ telephones show that he called Gal four times from his limousine and his office on the day of the attack. The calls were made before and after the attack, and one was made to Gal’s car at the time police believe Gal was parked outside Luby’s home.

Gionis’ attorney, Byron K, McMillan, said he had offered to have Gionis surrender whenever police wanted him. He said he was outraged by the arrest by police. “They’re cowboys, just cowboys,” McMillan said.

He insisted that Gionis is the victim of Gal, who was employed by Gionis’ attorney, not by Gionis. He said Gal tried to “shake down” Gionis for money before he fled to Europe.