Widow’s Nightmare : Man Once Convicted in Her Husband’s Death Files $500,000 Suit Against Her

Ruth Langlos has battled a reluctant bureaucracy, tangled with an unpredictable legal system and endured some bitter surprises ever since her husband’s body was found in a blood-spattered Downey office in 1976.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office had determined that John T. Langlos, a 52-year-old clinical psychologist, had died of a heart attack. But his widow waged a stubborn, six-year campaign to persuade authorities that, in fact, he was a murder victim.

Her persistence was rewarded when Eugene Clarence Hartman was convicted in 1984 of second-degree murder and sentenced to state prison. That triumph, however, was short-lived when Hartman was freed in 1985 because of a legal technicality.

For Langlos, it was a painful conclusion, but it appeared her odyssey was over.

Back in Court

Now, four years later, the 69-year-old Langlos finds herself back in court--this time as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the very man once convicted of killing her husband.

“I am now the accused, and my husband was taken from me,” an anguished Langlos said from her Huntington Beach home. “This just shows that the wheels of justice can backfire, and I didn’t think that could happen in this country.”

Langlos, who underwent triple-bypass heart surgery last spring, said she was stunned several weeks ago when she received a court summons informing her that Hartman was suing for “malicious prosecution” and seeking $500,000 from her.

“It was devastating. I just could not believe he wanted a half-million dollars from me,” Langlos said. “I was shocked. It brought everything back, all the memories.”

Those nightmarish memories stretch back to Feb. 2, 1976, when her husband’s body was discovered wedged partly beneath an office desk. There was a gash in his head. Three buttons were torn from his shirt and his wallet and money clip were missing.

Cashed a Check

A few days later, Hartman, a psychologist who occasionally worked with Langlos at the clinic, was arrested by Oakland police after he cashed a check drawn on Langlos’ account and used Langlos’ credit card to buy a watch and airline tickets.

Originally charged with murder, Hartman, 61, was released after a deputy medical examiner ruled that Langlos had died of natural causes. Authorities theorized that Langlos had suffered heart failure and fell, striking his head on his desk, and that Hartman had discovered and looted the body. Hartman was freed after serving 36 days in jail.

Still, Ruth Langlos insisted that her husband had been murdered and embarked on her quest to prove county officials wrong. She spent $50,000 for independent autopsies that challenged the original county findings. But then-Coroner Thomas Noguchi refused to change the death certificate--a required step before new murder charges could be filed against Hartman.

Coroner’s Jury Conclusion

Undaunted, Langlos took her case to a coroner’s jury, which concluded in May, 1982, that her husband had died of “undetermined causes . . . at the hands of another.” Less than a year later, the district attorney’s office filed a new murder charge against Hartman, and in 1984, he was convicted of murdering John Langlos.

In 1985, the state Court of Appeal overturned Hartman’s conviction, ruling that he was denied due process because the lengthy delay between Langlos’ death and the trial resulted in a loss of evidence. When the state Supreme Court later that year declined to consider a prosecution appeal, Hartman was permanently free.

Hartman, who now lives in Sacramento, told The Times that he was the target of a politically motivated prosecution and filed his lawsuit to underscore his innocence of the murder charge.

“I think the case was so bizarre and there was so much media value and Mrs. Langlos kept pushing (for a conviction), that put me at a disadvantage,” Hartman said.

Whereabouts Unknown

Although he filed the lawsuit in January, 1987, Hartman said he only notified Langlos this month because he could not determine where she lived until recently--a fact that terrifies Langlos.

“I thought now I can go on with my life, but I can’t,” she said. “He’s stopped that, and now he knows where I am.”

Hartman said Thursday he has no intention of harming Langlos, although he blames her for his conviction. In his lawsuit, he also named Gov. George Deukmejian, Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, then-Dist. Atty. Robert H. Philibosian and several state and county officials as defendants and accused them of pursuing the case against him merely to “gain political advantage and to aid Ruth Langlos’s campaign of harassment.”

In addition to the $500,000 claim against Langlos, Hartman is seeking $2 million from the county and $500,000 from the state.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert B. Lopez on Thursday dismissed the state defendants from the case, ruling that as public officials they are immune from such civil lawsuits. The judge had earlier removed Philibosian and the county as defendants for the same reason.

Meanwhile, Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling Norris, who filed the original case against Hartman, said the real victim remains Ruth Langlos.

“I think it’s atrocious. I don’t think there is any merit to the lawsuit at all,” Norris said. “The tragedy is that she has to respond and retain a lawyer. . . . It’s a real system of injustices that needs to be addressed.”

Harry Simon, an attorney with the Senior Citizens Legal Advocacy Program of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, agreed and said his office has been asked to represent Langlos. “Mrs. Langlos has been through this for 13 long years,” Simon said, “and it just seems to never end.”