RESEDA : Motorcyclist Pleads No Contest in Deaths

A Canoga Park motorcyclist accused of causing an accident that took the lives of a Reseda couple pleaded no contest to charges of vehicular manslaughter Monday.

Martin Joseph Ruthman, 34, was immediately sentenced to five years probation and ordered to continue volunteering at a home for handicapped children. He was ordered to pay fines totaling $12,500.

Ruthman also pleaded no contest to one count of felony hit-and-run driving. A plea of no contest means that a defendant will not offer a defense to the charges against him, but subjects him to the same penalties as if he had pleaded guilty.

After a traffic dispute on Victory Boulevard in Reseda on March 12, 1992, Ruthman cut off a Honda Accord driven by Mark Gold, 45. When Gold slammed on the brakes near Yolanda Avenue, he lost control of his car.

The vehicle jumped the curb and slammed into a tree. Gold and his wife Rowena, 52, were killed instantly.

“It was a tragic accident,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond.

While Diamond argued that Ruthman should be incarcerated, Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp noted that the victims had a “contributory negligence.”

The judge could have sentenced Ruthman to a maximum term of eight years and eight months in state prison.

Ruthman, who was teaching his wife how to drive on a separate motorcycle, became involved in an altercation with Gold. They exchanged angry words, and then Ruthman kicked the door on Gold’s car twice. Ruthman told police that he feared that Gold’s driving endangered his wife, according to evidence presented at a preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors filed murder charges against Gold, but Schempp dismissed these counts in December after hearing arguments from Diamond and defense attorney Mitchell W. Egers.