Gionis’ Attorney Assails Rehearing Attempt : Courts: Lawyer says the state is attacking the appellate panel’s integrity. Prosecutors want the Supreme Court to review the dismissal of charges in the Aissa Wayne attack.

State lawyers have tried to “smear” the local appellate court in their request for a new hearing in the case of Dr. Thomas Gionis, whose conviction on charges of plotting an attack on John Wayne’s daughter was overturned on appeal, Gionis’ attorney said.

In dismissing the 1992 conviction earlier this year, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana cited prosecutorial misconduct and found that an Orange County Superior Court jury heard improper evidence before finding Gionis guilty of hiring two henchmen to attack his estranged wife, Aissa Wayne, and her boyfriend, Roger Luby.

The state attorney general’s office last month asked the California Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s decision. State prosecutors said the appellate court improperly recast facts to “achieve a desired result” and unfairly criticized former Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson for his handling of the case.

In a response filed Monday, defense attorney William J. Kopeny labeled the request for the high court’s review a “scandalous” attack that accuses the appellate court of conspiring to act dishonestly and comes “perilously close” to contempt of the court.

“Unquestionably, this petition for review goes beyond vigorous advocacy, and unabashedly “impugns the integrity” of the Court of Appeal,” Kopeny wrote in a 22-page response.

But Deputy Atty. Gen. Rhonda Cartwright-Ladendorf said the request for review was proper.

“It was a strongly worded opinion that required a strong response to it,” she said.

The state’s highest court has 60 days to decide whether it will review the case.

The appellate court’s 3-0 decision found that trial judge, Superior Court Judge Theodore E. Millard, improperly allowed jurors to hear incriminating testimony from a family law attorney who once represented Gionis--a violation of attorney-client confidentiality, Kopeny said in court records.

The appellate court also criticized Robinson for his “vitriolic rebuttal and personal attacks” on Gionis’ trial attorney Bruce Cutler, known for his defense of New York mobster John Gotti.

The request should ultimately be denied, Kopeny argued in court records, because the appellate court’s findings were accurate and his client did not get a fair trial.

Gionis’ first trial ended in a mistrial. During a second trial, he was convicted of arranging the attack outside Luby’s Newport Beach estate in the midst of a bitter custody battle over the estranged couple’s young daughter.

Wayne was tied up and thrown onto a garage floor and suffered head injuries. The two attackers pistol-whipped Luby and slashed his Achilles’ tendons before fleeing.