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, 11:35 p.m.
Updated: January 28, 2022, 11:29 a.m.