Kidnap Suspect Arrested as He Buys Ferrari at O.C. Dealer

A former Newport Beach health club manager was charged with extortion Monday after his arrest in the ransom kidnaping last week of Las Vegas gambling mogul Steve Wynn’s daughter.

Ray Marion Cuddy, 47, was arrested Sunday by a group of 14 officers from the FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department when he arrived at Newport Imports to pay the $70,000 final installment on the purchase of a new, white Ferrari 512TR.

Cuddy, a slight, silver-haired man with a deep tan, was charged in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles with taking part in the July 26 kidnaping of Kevin Wynn, 26, who was released within several hours after her family paid $1.45 million in $100 bills.

Authorities said the woman was kidnaped at gunpoint from her home in the pricey Spanish Trail neighborhood of Las Vegas, bound with surgical tape and clothing and placed on the floor of her car--an Audi with the license plate BIONDA, Italian for blonde. She was driven to McCarran International Airport, where she was found after the ransom had been paid.

Steve Wynn drew the ransom money from the cashier’s cage at the Mirage, his flagship casino hotel in Las Vegas, and had it delivered to a drop-off spot before he called police. Wynn, 51, is chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc., which owns the Mirage, Golden Nugget and soon-to-open Treasure Island casinos in Las Vegas and the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, Nev.

When Cuddy was arrested, an unloaded .357 Magnum was found in the car he had driven to the Ferrari dealership, Assistant U.S. Atty David Z. Seide said Monday in court as he asked that Cuddy be held without bail.

Seide said that Cuddy had paid several installments on the wedge-shaped, 12-cylinder car, using $100 bills--”the same denomination provided as ransom,” the prosecutor said. Cuddy’s bail hearing was delayed until Thursday.

Lee West, owner of Newport Imports, was surprised to hear of Cuddy’s alleged involvement in the kidnaping. “The guy has been around this dealership for a good many years,” West said. “He likes cars and said he wanted to buy one.”

People at the dealership were also familiar with Cuddy from his former job at the Newport Beach Sporting House, a tony health club that closed about five years ago.

West said that Cuddy initially brought in $9,000 in $100 bills on July 27. On Friday, Cuddy brought in $48,000 in five personal checks of $9,600 each, drawn from different bank accounts. And on Saturday, he brought in $60,000 in cash, again in $100 bills, West said.

Cuddy made an appointment to bring in the final installment at 10 a.m. Sunday.

West said the sale price of the car was about $183,000. The transaction did not include California sales tax because Cuddy asked that the car be shipped to Las Vegas, where he would take delivery, West said.

No one at the dealership suspected Cuddy of involvement in the kidnaping until FBI agents arrived, asking staff members if they were familiar with him.

“The FBI came to us on Saturday night, showed us a picture of the suspect and asked us if he was trying to buy a car from us. We said yes,” West said.

FBI agents told West that they had Cuddy under surveillance at his hotel. They also had an agent next to him when he worked out at a health club Saturday morning, West said.

When Cuddy was arrested, court documents said, authorities recovered approximately $80,000 in cash, mostly in $100 bills. An additional $90,000 was found in his room at the Marriott Suites hotel in Newport Beach.

Cuddy lived in a one-bedroom, $425-a-month furnished apartment in a crime-ridden neighborhood just off the Las Vegas Strip. He had little connection with the city, having moved into the area just two months ago, said Gary Palmer, manager of the La Mesa Apartments.

According to court documents, Cuddy was unemployed.

Records obtained by authorities from McCarran Airport show that a 1986 Volkswagen with California license plates registered to Cuddy had been driven into the lot where Kevin Wynn was found after the kidnaping. It left the lot 22 minutes later, shortly before the victim was found, authorities said.

In addition, a taxi driver identified Cuddy as one of two men making telephone calls just after 11 p.m. from a 7-Eleven store where police said a call was placed to Steve Wynn.

Authorities said Monday that no other arrests have been made in the kidnaping. They declined to say how many accomplices they believe were allegedly involved with Cuddy. Previously they said that there may have been at least two other men involved.

Ray Cuddy’s name is widely known throughout Newport Beach’s affluent and professional set, largely because of his years during the 1980s managing the Newport Beach Sporting House. The health club, which he owned a small share of, closed in 1989.

“It’s very, very sad what has happened,” said Donn Kemble, a Newport Beach attorney, who with his son, Orange County real estate businessman Spyro Kemble, first met Cuddy at the health club about 14 years ago. Spyro Kemble once worked for Cuddy there.

“We like him,” Donn Kemble said. “He’s a wonderful person. We can’t explain this. We’ve had lumps in our gut since we heard it.”

The Kembles said they saw Cuddy last week and nothing seemed to be bothering him. They learned about his alleged involvement in the kidnaping, they said, from the FBI on Sunday. They declined to comment further.

Leslie Davis, a personal health trainer at Sports Club Irvine who worked for Cuddy at the Newport Beach Sporting House, said she was shocked when a reporter told her of the charges against her former employer.

“That doesn’t sound like Ray,” Davis said. “That’s wild. I can’t imagine Ray doing something that would be so dangerous and hurtful to a human being.”

Until two months ago, Cuddy was involved in both civil and criminal battles with a partner in the Newport Beach Sporting House, Edward G. Baker of La Jolla, over debts incurred by the health club prior to its closing in 1989.

During the legal confrontation, Baker filed a criminal complaint against Cuddy, alleging that as manager of the health club, Cuddy misappropriated funds by forging checks. After an 18-month investigation, Newport Beach police arrested Cuddy on charges of felony grand theft.

But the district attorney’s office dismissed the charges.

In the civil litigation, a Superior Court jury in May, 1991, sided with Cuddy, ordering Baker to pay him $500,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. The judgment was reversed, however, by the 4th District Court of Appeal on March 31, and remanded for a retrial.

Cuddy’s attorney appealed to the California Supreme Court, but on June 23 the high court refused to hear the case.

As a result of the legal battle, Cuddy was forced to sell his house to pay off debts and legal bills, Cuddy’s attorney, Milford Dahl Jr., said Monday.

“He was starting over again,” Dahl said.

Other than keeping his client up to date on the court proceedings, Dahl said he hadn’t talked much with Cuddy recently.

As late as June, when they last talked, Cuddy had been living in Sacramento, Dahl said. Until last year, when Cuddy lost his job, he had been working as a property manager, Dahl said.

“I saw nothing in his personality . . . that would indicate that he would do anything like” the alleged kidnaping, Dahl said. “He seemed to care for people. That’s how he got into trouble with Baker--too many verbal agreements and handshakes.”

Dahl said Cuddy had worked as a salesman for Baker’s Las Vegas Sporting House in the 1970s. Baker then hired him as manager of the Newport Beach business in 1978 or 1979. Cuddy held that position and later acquired a small part of the club’s ownership in the mid-1980s.

Cuddy left the business in 1989, shortly before it closed.

In two unrelated lawsuits filed in Orange County Superior Court in the 1980s, Cuddy was described by disgruntled former members of the Newport Beach Sporting House as a surly, abusive manager who insulted them publicly and unfairly revoked their memberships.

One suit, filed in 1982, claims Cuddy called police to oust one of the plaintiffs, while the other, filed in 1986, says he threatened to summon officers.

The suits each sought more than $400,000 to compensate for damages related to the lost memberships and the plaintiffs’ humiliation. Both cases were settled out of court, records show.

A secretary for Baker, who declined to give her name, said she was not surprised that Cuddy was attempting to buy a fast car when arrested.

“He was always disappointed that he couldn’t do everything Mr. Baker was doing,” she said. “He liked to live high on the hog. He had high ambitions.”

Times staff writer La Ganga reported from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum and correspondents Core and Geoff Boucher reported from Orange County. Special correspondent Joshua B. Good reported from Las Vegas.