Detective Arraigned in Assault on Wayne

A Beverly Hills private detective suspected of directing last fall’s attack on Aissa Wayne and her financier boyfriend was arraigned Friday in Orange County Harbor Municipal Court on charges of conspiracy and assault with a deadly weapon.

O. Daniel Gal, 32, who has agreed to help authorities in their prosecution of Pomona orthopedic surgeon Thomas A. Gionis, was arrested by police in Switzerland on an arrest warrant in April. He waived extradition proceedings and returned to Orange County three weeks ago.

His arraignment had been delayed, in part, because Swiss and U.S. diplomats had to agree what Gal could be charged with under the terms of his return to this country. “He can’t be charged with a crime in the United States if that action is not a crime in Switzerland,” Newport Beach police spokesman Robert Oakley said.

Police say Gal, acting on the orders of Gionis, 35, hired two men to attack Gionis’ ex-wife, Aissa Wayne, as a warning to her in connection with their protracted custody battle over their daughter, Anastasia, now 2.

Two Pistol-Whipped

Wayne, 33, and financier-friend Roger W. Luby, 53, were beaten, pistol-whipped and threatened by two intruders at Luby’s Newport Beach mansion last Oct. 3. Luby’s Achilles’ tendon was slashed in the attack.

Investigators say they have evidence of two payments totaling $40,000 that Gionis made to Gal just a month before the assault, along with four telephone calls between the two men on the day of the attack.

Shortly after Gal’s return from Switzerland, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans said prosecutors had secured Gal’s cooperation in their investigation. One of the two alleged hit men already had agreed to help prosecutors in their case against Gionis, but the cooperation of Gal is seen as even more valuable because he allegedly helped direct the attack.

In June, Evans said law enforcement officials made “no offers, no deals” to Gal in exchange for his potential testimony, but, citing pretrial publicity, Evans declined to discuss details of Gal’s cooperation.

Gal is scheduled to appear back in court July 21.