1982-1984
 Virginia Woman Indicted In Hunt Country Slaying
Washington Post Saturday, December 11, 1982
Fairfax correspondent Molly Moore reports [on Kidwell Case]
Washington Post-Monday, February 28, 1983
Kidwell Jury Fails to Agree On Verdict in Murder Case
Washington Post Saturday, March 26, 1983
Daughters of Slain Fairfax Woman Sue Stepfather
Washington Post-Friday, May 25, 1984
Doctor's Stepdaughters Plan Additional Lawsuit
Washington Post Saturday, May 26, 1984
Fired Policeman Sues Vienna; Wants Job Back to Resign on His Own Terms
Washington Post-Wednesday, July 18, 1984
Va. Officer Awarded $16,500
Washington Post-Friday, September 21, 1984
Virginia Woman Indicted In Hunt Country Slaying
By Philip Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 11, 1982 ; Page B1
WASHINGTON, Va., Dec. 10, 1982 -- A Warrenton woman who last month allegedly shot and killed her wealthy neighbor's farm manager in a bitter hunt country land dispute was indicted today on murder and firearms charges by a state Circuit Court grand jury. In this area of white board fences, grazing thoroughbreds and discreet country estates about 80 miles west of the District, the identity of the participants as well as the circumstances of the shooting have made the slaying a prime topic of local conversation.
The well-to-do neighbor is Patricia Saltonstall, divorcee, heiress and descendant of a prominent New England family, the boundaries of whose Points of View Farm in Rappahannock County figured in an escalating quarrel that authorities said led to the incident. The defendant, Diane E. Kidwell, is the wife of a Warrenton insurance broker. Kidwell is also a former employe of Dr. Murdock Head, creator of Airlie Foundation in Fauquier County whose conviction on bribery conspiracy charges in federal court in Alexandria last summer is now on appeal.
Kidwell, who testified against Head, has turned for help to an old acquaintance from the days of the Head investigation in the late 1970s. As her chief defense lawyer she has hired John Dowd of Washington, former head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime section who spearheaded the Head investigation. Kidwell is accused of murdering Saltonstall's farm manager, Rance Spellman, with a single shotgun blast from the window of her pickup truck as Spellman was bulldozing a hotly disputed right-of-way between the two properties in the early morning of Nov. 9.
Dowd and codefense attorney Rodney G. Leffler, a former assistant Fairfax County prosecutor, said today they will argue Kidwell acted in self-defense. Authorities said they found a rifle and a handgun in Spellman's possession atop the bulldozer after his death. Kidwell gasped and then wept today as the five-member grand jury returned its findings about 5 p.m. in the tiny, red-brick Rappahannock County courthouse.
Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne released Kidwell on a $25,000 property bond and set Jan. 12 for pretrial motions in the case. Rappahannock prosecutor Douglas Baumgardner said Kidwell will be tried for second-degree murder, which in Virginia requires proof that the defendant acted from malice. If convicted, Kidwell could be sentenced to five to 20 years in prison. A separate charge of using a firearm in the commission of a felony carries a mandatory two-year sentence. In a civil complaint filed prior to the shooting, the Kidwells alleged Saltonstall had erected a gate across an existing right-of-way in September in violation of the terms of her deed. She also intended to widen the right-of-way and demanded that the Kidwells remove some of their own fences and gates, the complaint said.
A Circuit Court hearing on the Kidwells' request for a temporary injunction to block Saltonstall had been scheduled for Nov. 10, but Spellman was shot one day earlier. Local authorities have been quoted as saying the Kidwells called Virginia State Police shortly before the incident, after they saw Spellman advancing along the right-of-way on his bulldozer about 8 a.m. Diane Kidwell reportedly blocked Spellman's way with her pickup before the fatal shot was fired. State police arrived within minutes, authorities said. Spellman, a Vietnam veteran, was buried on the Saltonstall property, a cowboy hat on top of the coffin and his horse, with his boots inserted backward in the stirrups, standing nearby, a local resident said.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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Fairfax correspondent Molly Moore reports [on Kidwell Case]
By Washington Post Staff Reporters Al Kamen and Ed Bruske
Monday, February 28, 1983 ; Page D2
Fairfax correspondent Molly Moore reports that legal types in Northern Virginia's Hunt Country were mum last week on details as to why Rappahanock County prosecutor Douglas Baumgardner has stepped out of the case of a local socialite accused of killing her wealthy neighbor's farm manager.
Diane E. Kidwell, owner of the sprawling Points of View Farm, allegedly shot to death Rance Spellman as he was bulldozing a disputed right-of-way between the two properties. Kidwell, a former employee of convicted Airlie Foundation chief Murdock Head, has hired as her defense counsel John Dowd, former chief of the Justice Department's organized crime section, and former assistant Fairfax County prosecutor Rodney G. Leffler.
Baumgardner was recused from the case against Kidwell, saying he might be called as a witness, but he declined to say for which side. One of Leffler's former colleagues in the Fairfax commonwealth's attorney's office, Steven Merril has been called in as special prosecutor after barely four months in private practice.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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Kidwell Jury Fails to Agree On Verdict in Murder Case
By Philip Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 26, 1983 ; Page B1
WASHINGTON, Va., March 25, 1983 -- mistrial was declared late tonight in the murder trial of Diane E. Kidwell after the jury said it could not agree on whether Kidwell shot her neighbor's farm manager in self-defense during a land dispute last fall. Jury foreman Eugene Leggett said afterward the panel was hopelessly deadlocked after more than seven hours of deliberation, with 11 members in favor of acquittal and a lone holdout arguing for conviction on a charge of voluntary manslaughter.
The prosecution was seeking a first-degree murder conviction. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne set a hearing for May 10 in Leesburg to determine whether and when Kidwell will be retried. Kidwell testified on Thursday she shot 35-year-old Rance Spellman, an employe of Patricia Saltonstall's nearby Points of View Farm, as he bulldozed a disputed right-of-way across Kidwell's property last Nov. 9. But she contended she fired because she feared for her life as she blocked Spellman's way with a pickup truck.
Jury foreman Leggett, 57, president of a computer software company in Manassas, said, "Not everyone may understand the power--psychological and real--of a big bulldozer. It was a weapon in World War II and an effective one--more effective than tanks. It was a scary position she was in." Spellman was driving a 43,000-pound tractor with a 13-foot blade toward Kidwell's truck when she fired a 12-gauge shotgun at him from a distance of about 20 feet, according to trial testimony. In his closing arguments to the Rappahannock County jury, special prosecutor Steven A. Merril said Kidwell "had no right whatsoever to eliminate Rance Spellman from the face of the earth. . . She gave him the death penalty."
Defense lawyers John Dowd and Rodney Leffler countered during their closing arguments that Kidwell believed Spellman was armed and acted in self-defense when she fired the single blast that killed him. "She made a decision, a selfless and a courageous decision of a good and decent woman. . . ," said Dowd. "She took that gun. I'm glad she did." A state police trooper who arrived minutes after the shooting found a loaded pistol concealed on Spellman's body and a sheathed rifle on the bulldozer, according to testimony in the three-day trial.
Merril today scoffed at arguments by Kidwell's lawyers as "a series of red herrings and smokescreens brought to you by the defense. . .The biggest smokescreen of all is the idea that this is self-defense. Kidwell fired a shot that hit right in the bullseye. Not a shot up in the air. Right in the chest." Merril reminded jurors that under his cross-examination, Kidwell acknowledged on Thursday that her brother had warned her that Spellman might be armed but that she angrily refused to return to the house. "Didn't you tell your brother: 'I'm going to stay here. Leave me alone. Don't fool with me'?" the prosecutor had asked. "Yes," Kidwell answered. Merril contended evidence showed Spellman was wounded in the right chest, and did not support Kidwell's testimony that she saw Spellman reach with his right hand inside the left side of his shirt and feared that Spellman was going for a gun.
"It does not lie in the mouth of the prosecutor to talk about red herrings," Dowd responded, pounding emphatically on a courtroom railing. Saltonstall, the lawyer said, testified Spellman was "a professional" around guns. "He sure was. She said he maintained order on 'my mountain.' What is this, a gunslinger? A hired gun? Why did they have to keep order on that beautiful mountain? That's not the South Bronx . . . " Dowd noted testimony by Kidwell that she had called the sheriff for help immediately before the incident and was told he "didn't want to get involved." "At that point in the life of Diane Kidwell," Dowd continued, "there was no law except her own human reactions . . . "
graphics/photo: DIANE E. KIDWELL ...judge declares a mistrial Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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Daughters of Slain Fairfax Woman Sue Stepfather
By Charles Fishman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 25, 1984 ; Page B1
The two daughters of a Annandale woman whose nude body was discovered in a station wagon at Dulles International Airport last June have sued their stepfather, a prominent Northern Virginia physician, seeking property and life insurance proceeds by alleging that he killed their mother.
The unusual legal action--a civil lawsuit--comes after what prosecutors say has been an exhaustive investigation into the death of Susan Davoudlarian, wife of gynecologist Dr. David K. Davoudlarian. No one has been charged by police with the killing. Fairfax Prosecutor Robert F. Horan said that despite detailed work by county police and the FBI, investigators "had not amassed enough evidence to be able to show beyond a reasonable doubt who committed the crime."
On June 12, 1983, eight days after Mrs. Davoudlarian was reported missing by her husband, her nude and badly decomposed body was found wrapped in a blanket on the floor of the family station wagon parked in the long-term lot at Dulles. A medical examiner said Mrs. Davoudlarian, 40, had been strangled.
Now, in what Horan and other lawyers say is an unusual action, Mrs. Davoudlarian's two daughters are alleging in a civil suit that their mother was "wrongfully killed" by her husband. Susan S. Rooney, 19, and Claire E. Rooney, 18, Mrs. Davoudlarian's daughters from a previous marriage, filed suit last week in Fairfax Circuit Court against their stepfather and five life insurance companies. They are seeking property that belonged to their mother and the proceeds of life insurance policies totaling $439,000 on which their stepfather is the named beneficiary.
Four days before their suit was filed, the Fireman's Fund American Life Insurance Company sued David Davoudlarian, his wife's estate and the two daughters and their half-brother, asking the court to decide who is the beneficiary of a $25,000 life insurance policy. The insurance company complaint said David Davoudlarian had filed a claim for the proceeds and alleged "there is reason to believe that . . . Davoudlarian himself killed the decedent."
Davoudlarian could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Rodney G. Leffler, said, "The doctor absolutely denies any involvement in his wife's death." Leffler said Davoudlarian was "extremely surprised" by the lawsuits. "I find it frightening that all of these allegations can be presented by these various people, and there isn't even enough evidence for the police to take any action," Leffler said. Lawyers say the daughters' civil suit is unusual because civil litigation normally follows criminal prosecution, and often relies on the outcome of a criminal trial for proof.
In civil cases, a party can win by having a preponderance of evidence on his side, a lesser burden of proof than in criminal cases. In criminal cases, a person can be convicted only if his guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt. "I've never seen one come in in quite this manner before," said Horan. "This case points up the fact that there is a tremendous difference between criminal prosecution and civil litigation, in terms of the burden of proof," he said. A spokesman for Firemen's Fund, a large San Francisco-based insurance company, said that while such lawsuits are infrequent, the firm is involved in perhaps two or three such suits a year.
Washington attorney Jacob A. Stein was successful in somewhat similar civil litigation growing out of the 1981 robbery and murder of Washington physician and author Michael Halberstam. Halberstam's widow sued Linda Sue Hamilton, the girlfriend of Bernard Welch, Halberstam's convicted killer, in civil court for millions of dollars in damages, even though police never pressed criminal charges against Hamilton. "The key allegation we made was that she was aware that he Welch was a criminal," Stein said, "despite the fact that the police testified they did not have enough evidence to prove that." A civil court found the woman liable for more than $5.7 million in damages as a result of Halberstam's slaying, agreeing that Hamilton knew of her boyfriend's criminal activity.
Stein said that this type of lawsuit, in which parties go into civil court when evidence or grounds for criminal prosecution are insufficient, "is not too frequent, but it is getting more frequent." By police accounts, their effort to find Mrs. Davoudlarian's killer was extraordinary. Fairfax police interviewed every cabdriver who worked out of Dulles at the time, trying to find one who might have known something about how the white station wagon containing her body got to the airport, or how the person who drove it left the airport. "One of the big stumbling blocks was the lack of cooperation we received from the victim's husband," said Fairfax Police Maj. Andrew Page, who at the time of the homicide headed the criminal investigations bureau of the county police department.
Leffler says Davoudlarian "did cooperate, up to the point where he didn't have anything else to say." Davoudlarian, Leffler says, "has given a full and complete statement to the police, and he gave a full and complete statement at a hearing . . . . He absolutely denied under oath that he had any connection at all with his wife's death." The hearing, according to those familiar with the case, took place in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in action related to visitation rights of Davoudlarian's son.
Under Virginia law such hearings are closed except to the family members involved. Dr. Davoudlarian, a native of Syria, filed a missing persons report on his wife on June 4, 1983. He told police he had last seen her alive at about 2 a.m. that night in the house they shared at 8808 Aunt Lilly La., a tree-shaded cul-de-sac in the Truro section of Annandale. He said she was nude at the time. Eight days later, Mrs. Davoudlarian was found by her father in the long-term parking lot at Dulles. Her nude body was wrapped in a blue-and-white blanket that police said matched the quilts in her bedroom, and her neck showed signs of strangulation. According to Horan and court documents, police believe Mrs. Davoudlarian was probably killed at her home and driven in the family car to Dulles.
Because the airport is federal property, the FBI was called into the case. During a search of the house, police confiscated a number of her possessions, including two pairs of contact lenses and certain medications. "Had she left the home of her own free will, she normally would have taken these with her," a police affidavit filed in court said. The affidavit said Dr. James Beyer, the state medical examiner for Northern Virginia, advised police that the strangulation wounds would have secreted body fluids. In their search, police took samples of a number of stains from the Davoudlarians' bedroom, from their bed and from the garage, according to court records.
Fairfax police said that tests had been completed on those stains but declined to say what the tests revealed. Horan said that all three children, the two daughters from Mrs. Davoudlarian's previous marriage and a son from her marriage to David Davoudlarian, were in the house at the time police believe she was murdered. Her daughters heard nothing, Horan said, and Davoudlarian has not permitted police to question the couple's 10-year-old son. In their suit, Mrs. Davoudlarian's daughters seek the rights to her property, which their stepfather inherited; seek to block Davoudlarian from collecting all insurance on their mother's life, including proceeds from the Fireman's Fund policy; and seek to collect that insurance themselves.
The women live in Fairfax County with their grandparents. Their complaint contends that under Virginia law, Davoudlarian "cannot profit and receive the decedent's interest in any property" if he is found by a court to have killed her. The suit also seeks to have a guardian appointed for David K. Davoudlarian Jr., the son, who lives with his father. The guardian, the suit said, would determine whether the boy should join the daughters in the suit. The daughters' suit is expected to come to trial sometime this fall, attorneys for both sides said.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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Doctor's Stepdaughters Plan Additional Lawsuit
By Charles Fishman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 26, 1984 ; Page B8
Attorneys for two Fairfax County sisters who have alleged in a lawsuit that their stepfather killed their mother asked a Virginia judge yesterday to appoint one of the women as coadministrator of their mother's estate, a step they said would allow the estate to file another suit against their stepfather.
The lawyers told Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Johanna L. Fitzpatrick that if she grants the two sisters' request the estate would file a "wrongful death" lawsuit seeking damages from Dr. David K. Davoudlarian, their stepfather, a prominent Northern Virginia gynecologist. Fitzpatrick said she would rule on the request, which was opposed by the doctor's lawyers, next Friday. Rodney Leffler, the doctor's attorney, said there is no reason to name one of the daughters as a coadministrator and said, "The facts in the sisters' argument are completely unprovable."
Susan S. Rooney and Claire E. Rooney, the two daughters of Susan Davoudlarian by a previous marriage, filed their first suit in the Fairfax court last week. They sued their stepfather and five life insurance companies in an effort to secure their mother's property and the proceeds of $439,000 in life insurance policies of which their stepfather is the named beneficiary. Through his attorney, Davoudlarian has denied any involvement in his wife's death. Despite an intensive investigation by both the FBI and the Fairfax County police, no one has been criminally charged in the woman's death, which police say resulted from strangulation, probably at the couple's Annandale home.
Mrs. Davoudlarian's nude body was found June 12 in the family car which was parked at the long-term parking lot at Dulles International Airport. Davoudlarian, who reported his wife missing eight days earlier, has said through his lawyer that he has cooperated with police in their investigation. In their suit, the women seek to block Davoudlarian from collecting the insurance and from inheriting her property.
Mrs. Davoudlarian died without a will and her husband was appointed administrator of her estate. In his arguments, Stanley P. Klein, one of the attorneys for the daughters, offered additional details about the daughters' position. The lawyer contended a $140,000 life insurance policy with Hartford Life Insurance Co. was taken out on Mrs. Davoudlarian on May 5, 1983, almost a month before she disappeared. He did not say who purchased the policy. Klein also alleged that Davoudlarian has disregarded juvenile court orders that his 11-year-old son be permitted to visit the boy's half-sisters and grandparents. Klein told the court that Davoudlarian had been ordered to let the boy see his relatives this weekend, and "instead he has taken little David to Paris on vacation."
Leffler said he had never heard the allegation about the life insurance purchase "until this morning." Of the allegations that Davoudlarian has not let his son see his relatives, Leffler said after the hearing, "I really hate to bring the little kid into it . . . . It's my understanding that he hasn't wanted to see them."
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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Fired Policeman Sues Vienna; Wants Job Back to Resign on His Own Terms
By Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 18, 1984 ; Page B7
Former Vienna policeman Richard D. Finelli is suing to get his old job back so he can quit the force on his own terms. Finelli, who until April was a private on the 31-officer town police force, was fired on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer. That followed a three-month internal investigation into his relationship with a woman whose stepbrother was an informant in a drug investigation.
Yesterday Finelli sued the two police officers who conducted the internal investigation for $2 million, hoping to be reinstated in his old job "so I can quit on my own terms." He contends the charges against him were trumped up by the two officers, who were "out to get me." Another Vienna police officer, John W. Cheyne, who was involved in a shooting incident with Finelli in January, also sued the two officers in Fairfax County Circuit Court for $100,000.
Both Finelli and Cheyne contend that the two investigating officers conspired to interfere with their jobs. The two suits are the latest episode in the tumultuous recent history of the Vienna police. The department has been racked by internal feuding since January.
Last month, the Town Council fired Police Chief Zed L. Childress and reassigned the deputy chief, Lt. Joseph R. Tavares, in an effort to end the turmoil. The chief was replaced by a Fairfax County police major who is on loan for six months. The two officers who investigated Finelli -- Tavares and Cpl. Robert Clouser -- say they acted on a request from an undercover Virginia State Police trooper involved in a drug investigation. Finelli maintains there was never any such request from the state police. Tavares and Clouser say they welcome Finelli's lawsuit. "Finelli can file 100 lawsuits," said Tavares. "I'm sure that we have no problem," he said. "We did what we thought was right."
In an April 6 letter to Finelli, Tavares lists the charges against him and the reasons for his dismissal. In the letter, Tavares states that Finelli had an adulterous relationship with a woman who was peripherally involved in a state police undercover drug investigation. The woman's stepbrother was an informant in the undercover probe. Tavares stated that Finelli told the woman of her stepbrother's involvement in the investigation. Finelli denies that particular charge, saying he knew virtually nothing of the investigation.
Finelli and his lawyer, Rodney G. Leffler, do not deny that the officer had an affair with the woman and other related charges. Leffler said he will attempt to show, however, that the Vienna police department enforced its standards of behavior selectively. Finelli says Tavares and Clouser launched the investigation in February because they were incensed over a shooting incident involving Finelli and his partner, Cheyne.
In the Jan. 29 incident, Finelli fired at a fleeing man who had been stopped for a traffic violation. Finelli and Cheyne allege that when they were filling out a report on the shooting, their supervisor, Sgt. James C. Coleman, suggested they falsify their account of the incident. Coleman has denied the charge. Because of Finelli and Cheyne's allegations, Coleman was suspended for two days without pay and placed on probation. A police review panel appointed to look into the incident recommended that Coleman's suspension and probation be revoked.
Town Manager Brackenridge H. Bentley decided to reduce rather than revoke the suspension, however, pointing to a "verbal indiscretion" by Coleman in the handling of the shooting report. Coleman, citing "great mental anguish and embarrassment" in the incident, sued the town; Bentley; Childress who imposed the original punishment; Finelli and Cheyne.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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Va. Officer Awarded $16,500
From news services and staff reports
Friday, September 21, 1984 ; Page B8
A Fairfax County police officer who was bitten on the arm last October by a motorist he was trying to arrest has been awarded $16,500 in damages by a Fairfax County Circuit Court jury.
Officer Ronald Novak, 27, was trying to arrest Eric Randolow of Vienna when Randolow bit Novak on the left forearm, according to the officer's attorney, Rodney G. Leffler. The bite required administration of a series of tetanus shots, Leffler said, and left a scar.
Randolow, who was charged initially with driving while intoxicated and convicted only of reckless driving and assault, contended in court that he bit Novak by accident, Leffler said. Randolow's attorney, Stephen J. Annino, declined to comment pending action on a motion to have the judgment set aside.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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