Wayne Describes Attack, Court Fight for Daughter

Aissa Wayne took the witness stand Wednesday at the trial of her ex-husband, Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, to describe for jurors the beating she and a boyfriend suffered two years ago in Newport Beach.

But once that short narration ended, Wayne, the daughter of John Wayne, spent the next two hours immersed in cross-examination about the bitter battle that she fought with Gionis over custody of their daughter, who was almost 2 years old at the time of the assault.

Prosecutors say it was because of that custody fight that Gionis ordered the attack on his former wife. His alleged motive was to have Wayne “taught a lesson.”

“Everything I did, there was controversy,” Wayne testified. “They were constantly coming up with stuff.”

Gionis, 37, hired private detective Dan Gal to spy on Wayne to see if she was spending time with the child with the intent of using the information as evidence at a custody hearing. But on Oct. 3, 1988, Gal sent two henchmen onto the grounds of the Roger W. Luby estate in Newport Beach.

Wayne and Luby, her boyfriend at the time, had just returned from a health club. One of the two assailants beat them up--Luby’s right Achilles’ tendon was cut and Wayne’s face was smashed into the concrete several times--and then tied their hands behind their backs with tape in Luby’s garage.

Gal and the two assailants have all admitted their roles in the assault. The man who beat them, Jerrel Hintergardt, has already been convicted at a separate trial and is serving an eight-year prison sentence. Gal and the other assailant, Jeffrey K. Bouey, are awaiting trial, but Bouey is expected to be permitted to plea-bargain in exchange for his testimony.

“(Hintergardt) was calm, deliberate, but loud,” Wayne said in describing the attack. “He took control immediately.” After the beatings, Wayne said, she yelled for Luby’s “houseman,” who got a knife and cut the tape on their wrists.

Gionis and his attorneys claim that Gal acted on his own and that the doctor was unaware anything but legitimate surveillance was going on.

Prosecutors contend that Gionis was worried that he was losing the custody battle and wanted to intimidate Wayne with the rough treatment. But Gionis attorney John D. Barnett contends that Gionis was actually winning the custody fight, so he had no reason to want Wayne injured.

To delve into that issue, Barnett has shown jurors monthly charts that depict Gal’s surveillance of Wayne from March through September, 1988. Gal’s reports show Wayne spending very little time with the child.

“I dispute that,” Wayne said.

“So Dan Gal is just a liar?” Barnett asked her.

“I know he is,” she replied.

Those were welcome words to Barnett. In a pretrial hearing, he acknowledged to the court that a major part of the Gionis defense will be to cast doubt on Gal’s credibility. Gal has told authorities that Gionis instructed him to organize the assault.

Wayne lost the custody hearing that followed the assault. But she did regain custody after Gionis’ arrest. Gionis now has court-monitored visitation rights with his daughter, who will be 4 on Valentine’s Day.

One controversy is whether Wayne should have taken the girl on a vacation to Sedona, Ariz., without the doctor’s permission two months before the beating incident. It was almost immediately after that incident, prosecutors contend, that Gionis decided to teach Wayne a lesson. Wayne insists she thought that the vacation was permitted under the court’s rules.

Wayne made a public statement complaining that Gionis, who had custody of their daughter Tuesday, had the girl in the courthouse hallway. She called it “vulgar and inappropriate.” She also complained that Gionis was not accompanied by the court-appointed monitor who was supposed to be with him and the girl.

On Wednesday, Gionis responded to her criticisms, saying only: “She knows I’m not going anywhere. She can get a court order about it if she wants.”