Gionis Investigator Is Reassigned : Trial aftermath: Bob Davis, whose testimony helped lead to a mistrial in the case, was transferred at his own request.

The district attorney’s investigator whose bungled testimony helped lead to a hung jury in the Dr. Thomas A. Gionis trial last month has been transferred out of the office’s organized crime unit at his own request.

Bob Davis, a 14-year law enforcement veteran, reportedly has been depressed over publicity surrounding his testimony, which was severely criticized by a number of the jurors in the Gionis trial.

“It was a stressful time for him, and I think he just wanted a job that required less stress for a while,” said Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, who approved the transfer.

Davis has been reassigned to the welfare fraud investigations unit. Capizzi said the transfer was one of many made at the first of the year.

Davis has declined to comment about either his testimony or his transfer.

Gionis, 47, was accused of eight felony counts related to the Oct. 10, 1988, assault on his ex-wife, Aissa Wayne, who is John Wayne’s daughter, and her then-boyfriend, Roger W. Luby, at Luby’s Newport Beach estate. Prosecutors contended that Gionis gave the orders for the attack and that three henchmen working for him carried them out.

Gionis’ trial ended in a mistrial last month after jurors deadlocked 9-3 in favor of a guilty verdict on the first of the eight counts--conspiracy. Judge Theodore E. Millard had instructed the jurors that it would be useless to deliberate on any other counts until the conspiracy count was resolved; a not-guilty finding on the conspiracy count would make all the others moot.

The three jurors who voted not guilty pointed to Davis’ testimony as the turning point. Davis had testified that Gionis’ driver gave him information that linked Gionis via telephone to the three assailants shortly before the attack. But the defense provided uncontested evidence that Gionis was in his clinic in Upland at the time and could not have taken the phone call, which had gone to his limousine. The driver and Gionis’ mother were in the limousine picking up Gionis’ daughter from Wayne’s Newport Beach home at the time.

The driver had tape-recorded his telephone interview with Davis. And the tape--played for the jury--showed that the driver never made the statement Davis attributed to him.

Davis at first insisted in his testimony that he and the driver had only had one telephone conversation. But after Davis listened to the driver’s tape, he changed his testimony, saying there must have been two phone conversations.

Two of the jurors who voted not guilty said they believed Davis was “a liar” and that they probably would have voted in favor of a guilty verdict for Gionis had the defense not shaken Davis’ testimony.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans is not expected to use Davis’ testimony at Gionis’ retrial.

Evans declined comment on Davis’ transfer. He has, however, been Davis’ staunchest defender. The prosecutor said he believes that the date on Davis’ report on his telephone conversation with the driver supports Davis’ contention that there were two telephone conversations.

A date for Gionis’ new trial is expected to be chosen when attorneys meet in Millard’s court on Jan. 24.