Newport Beach : Aissa Wayne Files Suit in 1988 Garage Attack

The daughter of the late John Wayne has sued her former husband for allegedly arranging an assault on her and her boyfriend a year ago.

Aissa Wayne said Sunday that the Oct. 3, 1988, attack was an attempt to intimidate her so she would not seek sole custody of their daughter, Anastasia, 2. The suit filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court seeks unspecified damages from her former husband, Thomas A. Gionis.

“When you’re assaulted, there’s a lot of anger involved,” said Wayne, who called the lawsuit “just a remedy.”

Gionis and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

Wayne, 33, and Roger Luby, 53, her boyfriend at the time, were beaten in the garage of Luby’s Newport Beach home. Two men smashed the couple’s faces against the concrete floor and slashed Luby’s Achilles’ tendon.

Gionis, an orthopedic surgeon, faces an Oct. 31 criminal trial in Orange County Superior Court in which he is accused of hiring a private investigator to arrange the assault.

Wayne said Sunday that she filed the lawsuit to comply with a one-year statute of limitations on civil actions from the date of an incident.

Wayne added that her civil suit seeks “to recover damages for the assault,” but she added that Gionis is “in bankruptcy, so it’s really the principle.”

“People shouldn’t get away with violence and intimidation, especially when it has to do with children,” she said.

In divorce proceedings, Wayne was awarded a judgment of $1.3 million. But she said she has not yet collected on that.