Groom’s Ingenuity Helps Bride in Walk Down the Aisle : Wedding: Irvine researcher’s device enabled his wheelchair-bound wife to be on her feet.

Out on the edge of the Pacific, on a patio stretching below the swank Ritz-Carlton hotel, the groom smiled nervously. His bride looked radiant, hair encircled with flowers, wedding dress trailing behind as she stepped slowly down the aisle, father at her side.

In most ways, the Saturday fete was like any other wedding. Except one.

The bride is paralyzed from the chest down. But she was able to stride delicately across the bricks because of the ingenuity of the man she was marrying.

This is no ordinary couple, no facsimile of the pair atop the wedding cake.

Janni Smith has not had the use of her legs since 1980, when she was gunned down by a paid assassin seven months after she walked out on her ex-boyfriend. Jerrold Petrofsky is the Irvine-based medical researcher she sought out for help, the man conducting pioneering tests to allow the disabled to walk again.

Smith first became a volunteer in the research project. Later, she and Petrofsky became business partners. And finally, they became husband and wife.

Gripping a clear-plexiglass walker decorated with flowers, Smith hit buttons to fire off the computer-controlled device that sends an electrical current snapping through her legs, one at a time, causing them to swing forward. Allowing her to walk.

Slowly she moved forward, to strains of a string quartet playing “Here Comes the Bride.” Her father, Wes, stepped slowly along, a hand occasionally touching her elbow. A bouquet of flowers was strapped to the front of the walker, a veil covered her face.

But it could not conceal a look of determination.

She had been an unabashed California golden girl, a beautiful, strong-willed blonde who devoted her time to modeling, marathon training and premed studies.

At age 23, she met Richard Minns on a Colorado ski slope. He was nearly 25 years her elder, but the charismatic, youthful-looking health club tycoon persuaded her to quit school and move to Houston to be with him in 1977.

Minns lavished attention on her. She was the most beautiful and desirable woman in the world, he would say. To prove his love, Minns would stop his car on the freeway to pick wildflowers for her.

Their love eventually evolved into obsession. When she decided to flee the relationship, Minns had her tailed and harassed her family, Smith says today. A few months later, she was shot four times in the back.

The case quickly became a cause celebre in Houston, and was recounted in a book published this year about Smith’s relationship with Minns, “Sleeping With The Devil.”

Soon after the crime, police arrested and convicted five men in Houston. But no charges were ever brought against Minns, who fled the country. Smith later brought a civil suit against him and ultimately received an award of $60 million. Minns, who is still presumed to be living overseas, has not paid a cent.

Bound to a wheelchair, Smith found out about Petrofsky’s research. She contacted the doctor and asked to participate.

In those early years, their relationship was at best one of researcher and volunteer, at worst a bit cold, Smith says today.

“If you had told me that that we would end up getting married, I would have bet everything I owned against it,” Smith said recently. “We were just two people going in different directions.”

But through the years, the pair developed a grudging respect for one another. Smith became an associate on the research project, then worked her way up to a position where Petrofsky took her on as partner.

Scores of disabled people have gone through physical therapy at the Petrofsky Center in Irvine and another center in Scranton, Pa.

Even though they worked long hours together, Smith and Petrofsky did not proclaim their love for one another until about a year or two ago, they said.

At the wedding, Smith used the latest model of their walking system, a device that is currently being considered for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use throughout the world.

The system has been subject to much attention through the years. “60 Minutes” and “Good Morning America” have done lengthy segments on the research, and numerous newspaper articles have been written. For Saturday’s ceremony, a half-dozen photographers were on hand to record the event, including one from “Life” magazine.

Although it was the focus of nearly two decades of study by Petrofsky, the system does have its limitations. It takes a bit of time to put on the special braces and other equipment, and even then the system can be taxing. Long walks are difficult, and the device does not replace a wheelchair in any disabled person’s life, Smith notes.

What it does do, however, is give disabled people an option, a chance to stand on their feet again and a renewed feeling of joy at being able to look someone in the eye, she said.

When the big moment arrived Saturday, nary a hitch developed. The winds gusted across the patio, but Smith strode right up to Petrofsky.

When the ceremony was over, she stepped away from her walker and into the arms of Petrofsky.