Pair Enter Pleas in Insurance Fraud Case

Two women in their 70s pleaded not guilty Monday to nine counts of fraud in connection with multimillion-dollar life insurance policies they took out on two homeless men who were later killed in hit-and-run accidents.

The women, Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay, face charges of mail fraud and aiding and abetting a crime in connection with life insurance statements.

Authorities have said that the women are suspects in the 2005 death of Kenneth McDavid and the 1999 death of Paul Vados. The women allegedly took out 19 life insurance policies on the men and eventually cashed in more than $2.2 million in claims after the transients died in hit-and-run pedestrian accidents in Los Angeles.

No charges have been filed in the men’s deaths.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul L. Abrams ordered a July 25 trial date for Rutterschmidt and Golay, who remain in federal custody. The two women did not speak to each other while waiting in a glass-curtained area for defendants, and barely looked at each other during the proceedings. Golay, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, her blond hair teased dramatically, spoke softly when Abrams asked her if she understood her rights, her voice barely audible in the federal courtroom.

Her attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, asked Abrams whether his client could be moved from San Bernardino, where is she is being housed, to a more central location.

Authorities made the decision last month to keep the women in separate facilities. Diamond also questioned why his client was the one of the duo to be housed farther away.

“We have no idea why we have to go to San Bernardino every day,” he said.

Abrams denied the request, saying another judge had ordered the women to be held at different facilities.

“For whatever reason he did it, I have no reason to second-guess it,” he said.

Rutterschmidt, in a pale green jumpsuit, a dark green windbreaker pulled down around her waist, was represented by deputy federal public defender Kim Savo. After the hearing, Savo told reporters that her client’s case has been sensationalized by the media.

“No one should be talking about this case in the press, including the government,” she said. “Right now, it’s a mail fraud case, and frankly, federal mail fraud cases are about as boring as they get,” Savo said.

Also in court were Golay’s daughter Kecia Golay and Stella Vados, daughter of Paul Vados. Vados told reporters that “seeing those two women up there was very upsetting.”