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Dentist accused of killing his own wife during Africa hunting trip

BizCT

By BizCT,
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suburbanfarmer Veteran

suburbanfarmer

Posted
Posted (edited)

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty.

I get the multi million dollar policy pay out casts some doubts but we all have different income brackets. Lately it feels like we are very quick to judge every one but our selves.

The way the article is written gives a biased twist imho

Edited by suburbanfarmer
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Dinsdale Community Regular

Dinsdale

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Posted
8 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty.

I get the multi million dollar policy pay out casts some doubts but we all have different income brackets. Lately it feels like we are very quick to judge every one but our selves.

The way the article is written gives a biased twist imho

 

7 hours ago, Farflung said:

If there is significant proof and not just innuendo and rumors, it should not take 5 years to develop a case. Hope they make this into a "true crime", made for TV show. 

The Feds are prosecuting this.

In 2018 they prosecuted almost 80,000 cases. There were just over 300 acquittals.

It takes time when the crime was overseas and there’s no need to rush; and they only bring a case when they have some strong evidence and ducks in a row.

 

Theres a bad history with the accused and SCI where he was president. Lots of back and forth chatter, under cover you tube videos……its a soap opera. With all the back and forth and accusation’s of impropriety at SCI; I haven’t bothered with their convention in some years

This has some buzz in African safari hunting circles obviously; I heard about it in the Johannesburg airport from another hunter when it happened.

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Dinsdale Community Regular

Dinsdale

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Posted

Things just got a little tighter for the dentist; no bail.

 

Ex-Greensburg dentist accused of killing wife on safari to remain jailed as flight risk, threat to murder witnesses, judge rules

TORSTEN OVE
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[email protected]
JAN 28, 2022 5:29 AM



A federal judge in Denver has ruled that former Greensburg dentist Lawrence Rudolph, accused of killing his wife with a shotgun on an African safari, must stay in jail because he is a flight risk and a danger to witnesses.

The decision Thursday by U.S. District Judge William Martinez upheld an earlier detention order by a federal magistrate judge.

Mr. Rudolph, 67, is charged with shooting his wife on a 2016 big-game hunting trip so he could collect nearly $5 million in life insurance and carry on a two-decade affair with his former office manager at the dental practice now run by his daughter.

He remains in U.S. custody in Denver but wants to be released, saying he didn't kill his wife, didn't flee before when he had the chance, doesn't have a passport to leave the country and hasn't threatened anyone.

The government disagreed on all of those points. Judge Martinez said there is probable cause to believe that Mr. Rudolph used a shotgun to murder his wife, Bianca, as the FBI alleges.

As for fleeing, Mr. Rudolph and his lawyer argued that he hadn't fled before, always returning from international trips despite knowing the FBI suspected him of murder.

The judge rejected that argument.

"To be sure, the defendant lacks any criminal history and has returned from his prior international trips despite knowing that he was under federal investigation," he said. "However, in the court’s view, there is a significant difference between the defendant knowing he is under investigation and knowing he has been indicted by a grand jury for foreign murder, a charge that potentially carries a life sentence."

The judge also agreed with the U.S. attorney's office in saying that Mr. Rudolph's wealth, estimated at $27 million in assets, provides him with the "means to flee." Mr. Rudolph lives in Phoenix but has a vacation home in Mexico.

Mr. Rudolph also had argued that health problems precluded him from fleeing, but the judge said his lawyer hadn't provided any medical evidence to bolster that contention.

"Moreover, there is evidence that the defendant’s health conditions are not so serious such that they prevent him from traveling to remote foreign countries to hunt big-game animals," Judge Martinez said.

Travel records and interviews indicate Mr. Rudolph flew to Ethiopia in May to hunt leopards, for example.

Mr. Rudolph's lawyer had also downplayed alleged threats his client made, chalking them up to an "abrasive personality."

But the FBI said Mr. Rudolph had made monetary offers to have people killed.

An agent testified that Mr. Rudolph had tried to hire a Nigerian hitman to travel to the U.S. to "shoot [a co-worker] in the head" and that Mr. Rudolph indicated he would shoot the co-worker himself. The agent also said a former employee at the Greensburg office recounted that Mr. Rudolph offered him $25,000 to have someone killed.

"And [Mr. Rudolph] reportedly went on to ask this individual, who appears to be Hispanic, if any of his hombres could come up from Mexico to facilitate this," according to the FBI.

"The serious nature of these threats, supported by the specific factual details of those threats, weigh heavily in the court’s determination that the defendant, who faces a life sentence if convicted of foreign murder, poses a danger to the community and the specific witnesses who may testify against him at trial," the judge ruled.

The FBI says Mr. Rudolph killed his wife Oct. 11, 2016, and then filed life insurance claims through seven companies for a $4.8 million payout. One of the companies is in Denver, which is why the case was indicted in that district.

First Published January 27, 2022, 5:35pm

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NonTypical Community Regular

NonTypical

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Dinsdale said:

Things just got a little tighter for the dentist; no bail.

 

Ex-Greensburg dentist accused of killing wife on safari to remain jailed as flight risk, threat to murder witnesses, judge rules

TORSTEN OVE
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[email protected]
JAN 28, 2022 5:29 AM



A federal judge in Denver has ruled that former Greensburg dentist Lawrence Rudolph, accused of killing his wife with a shotgun on an African safari, must stay in jail because he is a flight risk and a danger to witnesses.

The decision Thursday by U.S. District Judge William Martinez upheld an earlier detention order by a federal magistrate judge.

Mr. Rudolph, 67, is charged with shooting his wife on a 2016 big-game hunting trip so he could collect nearly $5 million in life insurance and carry on a two-decade affair with his former office manager at the dental practice now run by his daughter.

He remains in U.S. custody in Denver but wants to be released, saying he didn't kill his wife, didn't flee before when he had the chance, doesn't have a passport to leave the country and hasn't threatened anyone.

The government disagreed on all of those points. Judge Martinez said there is probable cause to believe that Mr. Rudolph used a shotgun to murder his wife, Bianca, as the FBI alleges.

As for fleeing, Mr. Rudolph and his lawyer argued that he hadn't fled before, always returning from international trips despite knowing the FBI suspected him of murder.

The judge rejected that argument.

"To be sure, the defendant lacks any criminal history and has returned from his prior international trips despite knowing that he was under federal investigation," he said. "However, in the court’s view, there is a significant difference between the defendant knowing he is under investigation and knowing he has been indicted by a grand jury for foreign murder, a charge that potentially carries a life sentence."

The judge also agreed with the U.S. attorney's office in saying that Mr. Rudolph's wealth, estimated at $27 million in assets, provides him with the "means to flee." Mr. Rudolph lives in Phoenix but has a vacation home in Mexico.

Mr. Rudolph also had argued that health problems precluded him from fleeing, but the judge said his lawyer hadn't provided any medical evidence to bolster that contention.

"Moreover, there is evidence that the defendant’s health conditions are not so serious such that they prevent him from traveling to remote foreign countries to hunt big-game animals," Judge Martinez said.

Travel records and interviews indicate Mr. Rudolph flew to Ethiopia in May to hunt leopards, for example.

Mr. Rudolph's lawyer had also downplayed alleged threats his client made, chalking them up to an "abrasive personality."

But the FBI said Mr. Rudolph had made monetary offers to have people killed.

An agent testified that Mr. Rudolph had tried to hire a Nigerian hitman to travel to the U.S. to "shoot [a co-worker] in the head" and that Mr. Rudolph indicated he would shoot the co-worker himself. The agent also said a former employee at the Greensburg office recounted that Mr. Rudolph offered him $25,000 to have someone killed.

"And [Mr. Rudolph] reportedly went on to ask this individual, who appears to be Hispanic, if any of his hombres could come up from Mexico to facilitate this," according to the FBI.

"The serious nature of these threats, supported by the specific factual details of those threats, weigh heavily in the court’s determination that the defendant, who faces a life sentence if convicted of foreign murder, poses a danger to the community and the specific witnesses who may testify against him at trial," the judge ruled.

The FBI says Mr. Rudolph killed his wife Oct. 11, 2016, and then filed life insurance claims through seven companies for a $4.8 million payout. One of the companies is in Denver, which is why the case was indicted in that district.

First Published January 27, 2022, 5:35pm

But if you kill a cop, you can get out on bond before the funeral...

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Dinsdale Community Regular

Dinsdale

Posted
Posted

And a conclusion to the story, the dentist hasn’t made out too well….

He admitted on the stand to lying in another legal proceeding involving safari club international, thats not too good for a defense……

DENVER (AP) — A wealthy dentist accused of fatally shooting his wife at the end of an African safari was found guilty of murder and mail fraud Monday.

The verdict for Lawrence "Larry" Rudolph' came from a jury in a Denver federal court following a trial that lasted three weeks.

Rudolph was charged with murder and mail fraud for cashing in $4.8 million in life insurance claims in what prosecutors describe as a premeditated crime.

Rudolph maintained his innocence. His attorney suggested his wife of 34 years, Bianca Rudolph, shot herself while trying to pack a shotgun in a hurry as they prepared to return from Zambia to the United States in 2016.

But prosecutors countered that evidence showed that was impossible because the wound to her heart came from a shot fired from 2 to 3.5 feet (1 meter) away.

 

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Dinsdale said:

And a conclusion to the story, the dentist hasn’t made out too well….

He admitted on the stand to lying in another legal proceeding involving safari club international, thats not too good for a defense……

DENVER (AP) — A wealthy dentist accused of fatally shooting his wife at the end of an African safari was found guilty of murder and mail fraud Monday.

The verdict for Lawrence "Larry" Rudolph' came from a jury in a Denver federal court following a trial that lasted three weeks.

Rudolph was charged with murder and mail fraud for cashing in $4.8 million in life insurance claims in what prosecutors describe as a premeditated crime.

Rudolph maintained his innocence. His attorney suggested his wife of 34 years, Bianca Rudolph, shot herself while trying to pack a shotgun in a hurry as they prepared to return from Zambia to the United States in 2016.

But prosecutors countered that evidence showed that was impossible because the wound to her heart came from a shot fired from 2 to 3.5 feet (1 meter) away.

 

""Yeah....But I guess she had it coming...."

 

" We ALL have it coming, Kid....".....

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