Fugitive Survived on Social Security Checks

During the four years that detectives searched for Newport Beach attorney Hugh “Randy” McDonald in connection with a murder case, another branch of government sent him checks totaling more than $20,000 that he used to live on.

The Social Security Administration mailed the monthly disability checks to McDonald’s San Fernando Valley bank for at least the last year, unaware that detectives wanted to question him as a possible suspect in the 1997 slaying of a businessman’s wife. McDonald collected the sum under his real name, and the bank account also bore his name.

The revelations come as new details emerge about McDonald’s life in hiding. He was arrested on murder charges last week after allegedly staging his suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge, altering his appearance and living under a series of aliases.

A prominent Orange County judge and longtime friend of McDonald said Monday that he sought unsuccessfully in the weeks before the Newport Beach attorney’s capture to arrange his surrender.

“This is totally out of character. Randy would be the last person that I would expect would face any allegations of this type,” said Judge James Gray, whose friendship with McDonald dates back to their student days at USC. “This is the most bizarre set of circumstances I’ve ever seen in my life. . . . But you don’t turn your back on old friends.”

Authorities have charged McDonald with the 1997 murder of Janie Pang, the wife of a businessman whose company hired the attorney’s firm for legal work. A maid at the Pangs’ home opened the front door to a clean-cut man wearing a business suit who drew a pistol and chased Janie Pang as the maid spirited two of her three children outside. The gunman caught up with Pang hiding in a bedroom closet and shot her.

McDonald resembled descriptions witnesses gave of the gunman, sheriff’s officials said, but he disappeared before detectives could question him--leaving his family and law practice behind.

The disability checks McDonald received allowed him to survive in hiding, investigators said Monday.

Strict privacy laws prevent federal officials from releasing information about people on Social Security. One of the few exceptions is when detectives have a murder warrant, said Social Security spokeswoman Leslie Walker.

McDonald was wanted for questioning in connection with the killing. But detectives said they did not have enough evidence to seek a murder warrant until last month, when they obtained new evidence in the case. They declined to state what the new evidence was.

Within 10 days of receiving the warrant, detectives said, they asked federal officials about McDonald’s case. Discovery of the payments led police to the bank account and to the Reseda house where McDonald was hiding.

“We needed a search warrant to make this move,” said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino. “But once that was issued, we caught him pretty fast, in just two and a half weeks.”

Judge Gray said that his contact was limited to phone calls from McDonald’s friend, Chrystel Lepelletier, and that they first talked two years ago when he thought he had set up a surrender plan. He said that plan fell through at the last minute. They began contact in the last few weeks.

“I have strongly encouraged, through Chrystel, to get him to come in, and to get medical help,” said Gray, who added that he never knew where McDonald was living. “I was ready to walk him in myself to the sheriff’s office to ensure his safety. Then he could get an attorney appointed and investigate this bizarre set of circumstances.”

The judge said Lepelletier told him that McDonald needed medical help for psychiatric problems. Lepelletier told The Times that McDonald suffered from depression and was undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Sheriff’s detectives arrested McDonald, 52, five days ago at Lepelletier’s Reseda home. The arrest ended what authorities describe as a sudden vanishing act.

On Monday, McDonald appeared in court for the first time since his arrest, handcuffed and clad in an Orange County Jail jumpsuit. Looking pale and gaunt, he occasionally turned to the courtroom’s public area and smiled at Lepelletier, who sat smiling back.

Judge Gary S. Paer noted during the arraignment that the case was four years old, and asked prosecutors to explain generally what new evidence they had in the case.

“Witness statements and circumstantial evidence,” replied Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Schwarm.

McDonald did not enter a plea, and the arraignment was postponed until Sept. 11. McDonald’s friends have insisted the once clean-cut corporate law attorney they knew could not have committed the crime.

Officials admit they aren’t sure what relationship--if any--McDonald had with Janie Pang.

A year or two before the slaying, McDonald was introduced to Pang’s husband, Danny Pang, said Pang’s attorney, Bill Baker. Baker said he asked McDonald to recommend an attorney who specialized in securities law for Pang, a venture capitalist.

Baker, a longtime friend of McDonald since college, said he believes that McDonald and Janie Pang never met and that McDonald and her husband did not know each other well.

“It was pure business,” Baker said. “That’s why it’s so bizarre that this could even be suggested. There’s no motive.”

Authorities acknowledge that they too remain unsure of a motive for the killing, though they believe that robbery may be a factor.

Detectives allege McDonald went to great lengths to make it look as though he had killed himself, hoping his family would be able to collect on his $650,000 life insurance policy.

“He wanted to make sure his family was taken care of financially even though he abandoned them,” said sheriff’s spokesman Amormino.