Judge Upholds Denial of Bail for Wayne’s Accused Attacker

A Superior Court judge today refused to overturn a lower court decision denying bail to Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, who is accused of masterminding an attack on his ex-wife, Aissa Wayne, and her companion last October.

Gionis’ attorney, Marshall M. Schulman, called the court bail refusal “outrageous” and accused the district attorney’s office of making the prosecution a “political case” because Aissa Wayne is the daughter of the late John Wayne.

Gionis, 35, a wealthy orthopedic surgeon, is accused of hiring a private investigator, O. Daniel Gal, and two other men to rough up Wayne and her companion, financier Roger Luby, at Luby’s Newport Beach estate on Oct. 3. Gal was arrested in Switzerland earlier this week. The two men accused of carrying out the attack are being held in the Orange County Jail on $1 million bail each.

Harbor Municipal Judge Russell A. Bostrom last week ordered Gionis held without bond after prosecutors argued that the surgeon had contacted relatives in Greece and intended to flee.

Schulman told Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald today that he can prove that telephone calls made to Greece from Gionis’ Pomona home were made by other members of the doctor’s family.

But Fitzgerald said he found no error in Judge Bostrom’s ruling and refused to overturn it.