Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 46

DETROIT FREE PRESS 4 Sunday, Dec. 8, 68 TOWARD THE END, A FINAL PLEA IN MIAMI oiv Lazaros of Jail Years 5 Ti Continued from Page 1C jail. He says he also promised that he would take care of both Hudnut and Bronson later. Lazaros says he flew to Florida late Feb. 21st or early the 22nd to give the $22,000 to Hudnut, staying only several hours before returning to Detroit.

Although he did not see Hudnut and Bronson together, he says that the two of them met to discuss his situation at the swimming pool of the Diplomat Towers in Hollywood, Florida, where Robert and Frank Adell maintain an apartment. Whatever Lazaros had in mind surely failed. On Feb. 23, as scheduled, he was taken into custody at Deaconess Hospital where he had checked in as a patient on Feb. 22, claiming heart trouble.

HUDNTT'S VERSION of the story is somewhat different. He says he went to Florida Feb. 21 with Robert Adell and two business clients of Adell'3 whom Hudnut does not Identify. Hudnut admits that he was going to Florida to plead on Lazaros' hehalf, but says Lazaros didn't go to Florida at all and says no money, for restitution or otherwise, "was involved. Hudnut says he met with Bronson, asking him to agree to continue Lazaros's freedom on bond until he could file another appeal in federal court.

When his effort failed, Hudnut says, he called Lazaros in Detroit at the office of an independent businessman whom Hudnut describes aa another client of his. Several would not normally accept anything like restitution money for a bonding company and would have no authority to do so. Bronson emphasizes that he reported the conversation to assistant prosecutor Thomas Plunkett, then chief of the appeals division and in direct charge of the Lazaros case, when he returned to Detroit. THE INDEPENDENT evidence is this: Oakland County records show that Bronson, Bain and Flood filed expense accounts June 6, 1968 for a trip to Miami Feb. 17 to 21, 1968, ostensibly for an "investigation to aid In the trial in the matter of the People vs.

Ruben-stein and Gordon." Vouchers indicate that Bronson apparently flew down ahead of Bain and Flood, though all three may have returned together. Bain and Flood billed the county for rooms, meals, airplane tickets and other expenses; Bronson charged only for meals and airplane tickets, apparently because he was staying with his parents. What difficult Investigatory problem required a state policeman, an assistant prosecutor and the prosecutor himself to go to Florida to Investigate a ease based in Michigan is not clear. Nor is it known how Hudnut knew that Bronson was In Florida and where he was. If both Hudnut and the county records are correct, it seems strange, too, that Hudnut flew from Detroit to Florida to meet Bronson when Bronson was returning to Detroit the same day.

Records at Deaconess Hos- others were present, Hudnut says, claiming he can prove that Lazaros was in Detroit all the time and hence, that Lazoros is lying. Bronson tells still another version. According to him, he went to Florida around the 20th of February for "three or four days" to Investigate a Florida-based shoplifting ring that was stealing merchandise in south Florida and marketing it in Detroit. With him, he says, went assistant prosecutor Jack Bain and Michigan state policeman Donald Hood. In Florida, Bronson says, he stayed with his parents, retirees who live at the Galahad apartments, one block south of the Diplomat Towers on the Hollywood beach.

There, he says, he received a phone call from Robert Adell asking him to stop by at the Adell apartment complex, apparently to be sociable. He met Robert Adell at the pool, he says, and then along came Hudnut. BRONSON SAYS he was "extremely surprised" to see Hudnut and called the meeting "bizarre." Bronson says his office had been deluged with pleas on Lazaros's behalf for the previous four to six weeks, as Lazaros's jail date drew closer. Bronson says he and Hudnut talked, with Adell present, for several minutes, in which time he explained that there was nothing he could do or would do for Lazaros. At no time, Bronson says, was money discussed by him or by Hudnut in any form and he is sure that Lazaros was not there at the time.

Bronson says his office I-V i fE JT 5" I '-yX -J pital show that Lazaros checked in Feb. 22, indicating that he, too, returned immediately from Florida if he went there at all. The hospital will not say what time of day Lazaros checked In, explaining that state police have already checked those records. What exactly Hudnut hoped to gain from Bronson is uncertain. Only a judge could have legally delayed the execution of Lazaros's sentence; at most, Bronson's office could only have agreed to offer no objection to continuing bond and delaying execution of sentence if the judge were prepared to agree.

The. record itself strongly favors Bronson's explanation: Forty-eight hours after the exchange which Lazaros himself describes, Lazaros was in custody at Deaconess Hospital, on schedule. If a deal took place, it was the worst deal Lazaros eyer made. HOW LAZAROS got the money he says he did from Phillos is in dispute. Phillos, born in Greece, and a countryman of Lazaros, reportedly told investigators he gave Lazaros the money within days, perhaps of the Bronson-Hudnut conversation but later repudiated that statement.

Hudnut acknowledges a Phillos-Lazaros loan but says it was made several months before. Phillos himself now refuses to discuss the case, admitting that he knows Lazaros but refusing to discuss business transactions. "I don't want to get involved with that bunch of thieves there," he says. There is no doubt that Phillos and Lazaros were associates. In the rape examination of Joe Barbara, Delores Lazaros testified that Phillos was with Barbara when she saw them on the day that her husband went to prison.

She says she talked with them either in the hospital or In her husband's office and says she thinks Hudnut may have been with them, though she can't remember for sure. Earlier, on December 13, 1967, Phillos posted $13,000 worth of stock owned by him as security for a $25,000 bail-bond which Hudnut needed to keep Lazaros free and on the street. Then, Phillos visited Lazaros in Jackson Prison on April 6, 1968. Phillos is the major owner of Detroit Sausage 2001 Erskine, a business which he acquired years ago from the Greek brothers who founded it. A former restaurant and bar owner, he was divorced in 1958 from his wife of 22 years, Demercula.

The original attorneys of record for Phillos in the divorce are Jack J. Brown and Walter Nelson, the attorneys who represented Robert Adell in his notorious divorce suit in Oakland County. Jack J. Brown is listed as vice-president of Adell Chemical Corpor for a further appeal on Feb. 13.

It was between the ISth and the 23rd that Hudnut's final attempt to keep Lazaros out of if that was what It was, took place at the Adell apartment in Florida. On Feb. 23, the Michigan Supreme Court said no to a last-gasp appeal, and Lazaros, pleading illness, was taken into custody at Deaconess Hospital. Oakland County sheriff Frank Irons assigned two men to guard Lazaros in the hospital. On Feb.

28, Lazaros was moved to St. Joseph's Hospital in Oakland County, where he stayed until March 8, the day he was transported to prison to begin serving the S-to-10-year sentence imposed years earlier. AT JACKSON, Lazaros had many visitors. Delores and his parents came often, so did the succession of attorneys who represented Lazaros or peopla who did business with him. Jim Hudnut visited twice, on May 18 and Sept.

10, though he says he no longer represented Lazaros. Theodore Albert, the former Goldfarb Hudnut attorney who originally handled Lazaros's appeal, saw Lazaros nine times, at intervals of about two weeks. Albert was one of the attorneys whom State Court of Appeals Judge John Lesinskl recalled as having approached him on Lazaros's behalf. Lesinski's recollection came after Mrs. Lazaros testified in court that Barbara once told her he would get Lesinskl to "take care" of her husband.

Lesinski says he knows a Barbara employe, John Scott, but says he has met Barbara only once and says he has never done business with him. He remembers being approached by Albert and New York attorney Hugo Rogers and says they asked him what to do to file a motion for a delayed appeal. Lesinskl says he told them how, that the appeal was filed and that Lazaros lost. Lesinski did not rule on the appeal himself. JOHN X.

O'BKIEX, the assistant prosecuting attorney who first indicted Lazaros and then defended him In civil actions, visited Lazaros in prison. So did Lazaros's r.ew and latest lawyer, Jamea Finn. Finn, too, is a former assistant prosecutor in Oakland County best-known for his successful prosecution of the Steren Assembly Club gambling raid defendants. Arrested in 1963, convicted in 1965, not one of the 20 defendants have ever gone to jail. Defense attorney in the Steren Assembly case was Carlton Roeser, the same attorney who defended Harvey Allen, the "Raffles of Hollywood" burglar.

Arrested July 10, 1965, Allen and a companion were not tried for more than 14 months. Even then, conviction in the first case was overturned when Oakland Circuit Judge James S. Thorburn JOSEPH BARBARA defendant in rape and extortion charges brought by Delores Lazaros; the man Peter says betrayed him most of all. An Un usual Jivorce "S- 4 5.. is 1 i until March 22, 1967, was the prosecutor's brief filed.

It was written by Dennis Donohue, an assistant prosecutor. The brief sought dismissal of the appeal and denied trial error. The reasons for the inaction, Plunkett said recently, "do not justify the delay entirely, but they are the reasons." Plunkett said the Lazaros case was pushed aside during the two-year period because he was tied up on other matters, trying cases and conducting a grand jury investigation, and because Eronson'g office was short-handed. Goldfarb at one point tried to persuade Plunkett to accept a plea to a lesser charge by Lazaros. Plunkett said he refused to agree.

Bronson agreed witsi that decision, Plunkett recalled. AFTER THE prosecutor's brief was filed, Hudnut secured several minor delays, which Plunkett opposed. On Dec. 8, 1967, the Court of Appeals, upheld Lazaros' conviction. Hudnut, then representing Lazaros with George Roumell, a member of the Detroit law firm of Armstrong, Helm, Marshall and Schu-maia, tried to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The Suprenie Court granted Lazaros an emergency stay pending a hearing on Hud nut's motion. On Dec. 14, 1967, Judge William J. Beer of the Oakland County Circuit Court ordered Lazaros to post a $25,000 surety bond and a $25,000 conservator-of-the-peace bond pending a Supreme Court decision. Lazaros' wife, Delores, signed a quitclaim deed to their home and property to Carman A.

Mitchell, a Pon-tiac bondsman, to secure the bond money, and Phillos posted 513,000 to secure it. Also on Dec. 14, Plunkett, acting for Bronson's office, strongly opposed any further appeals in the case. "Peter N. Lazaros must go to prison," Plunkett urged the Supreme Court.

"Although convicted of two felonies in 1962, (he) has retained his liberty for over five years." The Michigan Supreme Court denied Lazaros' attempt DETROIT Diorv Case ft 4 I i 1 i process of establishing a new State Court of Appeals. On Oct. 29, 1964, the Lazaros case was assigned to the new intermediate court by the Supreme Court. Less than a week later, Jerry Bronson was elected as Oakland County's new prosecutor. He named Plunkett as head of his appellate division.

PLUNKETT NOTED in his files that a predecessor, Jer-rome K. Barry, had earlier advised the Supreme Court that "appellants have purposely delayed and engaged in dilatory tactics." On March 1965, Plunkett, -writing for Bronson, asked the Court of Appeals to dismiss Lazaros' appeal because it had used up "almost double the time allowed all other litigants." Eight days later, Plunkett wrote again, withdrawing that request because "I have been persuaded" to do so. Recently, Plunkett said It was Lazaros' attorney, Theodore Albert, and no one else, who persuaded him to withdraw his dismissal motion. Albert, Plunkett said, pleaded he had only recently taken over the case for the Goldfarb and Hudnut firm and promised not to delay the case. During the next few months of 1965, Plunkett opposed motions by Albert to remove the case from the court's no progress calendar.

On July 16, 1965, three years after Lazaros' conviction, Albert filed his appeal brief. It sought a new trial en grounds Judge Dardas admitted testimony and evidence that should not have been allowed. THEN CAME a puzzling two-year delay in the case, a delay caused by Bronson's office, which until this point had argued vehemently against further delay. In September, 1965, Plunkett wrote the Court of Appeals seeking more time, until Oct. 24, 1955, in which to file the prosecutor's brief in answer to Lazaros' appeal brief.

For almost two years from that date, Bronson's office and riunkett displayed no movement in the Lazaros case. Not ART IN Important "PSEUDO This is a painter who only pretends he doesn't know anything so he won't have to answer a lot of sticky questions. The thing is, a primitive can get away with a lot. If you're a "primitive," you don't have to paint modern art and all that stuff. "TRANQUIL Nothing's happening in the painting.

Superficial technical skill. Derogatory. Means the artist is sort of a show-off. The public is always impressed with a "facile" painter. "THOREAUVIAN" A very erudite word that no one is sure what it means.

Often used with "Utopian." Both words are subtle knives, suggesting day-dreams about a pretty world; hence, total or partial disorientation. Generic term for a new paint species. Water soluble, quick drying, permanent, transparent or opaque. The artist can effectively render a weedpatch with these paints Just by knowing how to blot and blob. ROBERT ADELL: Lazaros was a member of his raiding partv when thev surprised Mrs.

Adell. ($22.80 for false eyelashes) to drug addiction (never proved) to adultery. On at least two occasions, Serene claimed Robert beat her. On others, Robert said she was an unfit mother. Robert was also in the process of having his tax returns audited by the Internal Revenue Service, which complicated things still further.

On one occasion, asked point-blank whether he was worth more than $5 million, Adell replied: "I don't know." BECAUSE of Adell's wealth, Serene stood a chance of collecting a substantial settlement if she won the divorce. Her original complaint asked $15,000 a month in support alone; the Friend of the Court awarded her $1,000. While the legal pulling and hauling was going Barry, O'Brien. and John N. THE FRAUD CASE was tried by Circuit Court Judge Leon R.

Dardas of Bay Gty. According to testimony, Lazaros either was owner or operator of Jefferson Household Supply and Golden Crown Furniture Co. in Ferndale, witnesses said. These firms dealt largely with high credit risks, selling them furniture on credit, then selling discounted notes to General Public Loan, which in turn made its profits by collecting full payments from the high-risk buyers of the furniture. LAZAROS and five other de-fendants were found guilty by a jury on July 25, 1962.

Lazaros was found guilty on all three counts, but Judge Dardas ordered the sales tax conviction dismissed. On Sept. 17, 1962, Dardas ordered Lazaros to serve a total of three to 10 years. Lazaros did not enter prison until March 8, 1968. He was a free man again on Oct.

11, 1968. Lazaros' attorney during his trial was Nicholas Smith, of Detroit. Smith appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, and asked Judge Dardas for a new trial. Dardas denied the motion and ordered the sentences to begin Dec. 20, 1962.

Lazaros was out on $5,000 bond at the time. But Lazaros' jailing was delayed as his attorney sought to perfect the filing of an appeal in the Supreme Court. On April 9, 1963, Smith bowed out as Lazaros' lawyer. Entering the case to represent him was the Detroit law firm of Albert Goldfarb and James Hudnut, now dissolved. ALMOST A YEAR after Lazaros' conviction on May 2, 1963 Judge Dardas ordered that there be no more stays and that Lazaros be placed in custody five days later.

On May 8, however, the Michigan Supreme Court granted permission for appeal. Delay was also encouraged because Michigan was in the Some BY WILLIAM TALL Free Press Art Critic Occasionally, a reader write3 in to say he's confused. Well, perhaps this is a good time to supply definitions of important words for articles on art. Paintings of ield3 and trees and barns are so unusual and so hard to understand that I had to consult my reference books. In my weather beaten copy of "The Critic's Handbook: How To Write Caustic Criticism No One Will Understand," I found the following terms in the sections on realistic painting.

It might be well to save these definitions as a guide toward your own Viewer's Guide to Critical Ob-scuritv. "PRIMITIVE" This is when you don't know much. It's like a backwood3 painter who grinds his own pigment and makes his own brushes from the horse's tail, and doesn't think about things outside the county. ROBERT ADELL is a wealthy man, a businessman who once said under oath that he paid for a $200,000 home in Bloom-field Hill3 with cash from his checking account. He was an early supporter of Mayor Cavanagh and there reportedly was testimony before the Piggins grand jury that indicates Adell contributed some $4,000 to Cavanagh, presumably for campaign or political expense.

Cavanagh himself does not recall Adell contributions but says it is conceivable that they may have occurred, perhaps through a number of fund-raising efforts to make up campaign deficits. Cavanagh appointed Adell a Detroit Fire Commissioner in January, 1962, an appointment supported by Morris Gruskin, Wayne County Prosecutor Catalan's chief investigator. Cavanagh says Adell was recommended to him as being a good business man but says the appointment was an independent one and says Gruskin did not recommend Adell to the mayor's office. Adell served as fire commissioner until early 1968, resigning then, he said, because of business pressures. Tn lftfu, questions were raised about Adell's qualifications to serve because of his move to Bloomfield Hills, a violation of city charter requirements.

Adell said he maintained a "legal residence" at 943 Whitmore, Detroit, but in divorce proceedings he said the address was an apartment occupied by his aunt and uncle. He said he paid them $20 a month but did not live there. As fire commissioner, Adell is remembered a3 a "little boy fireman" who went to fires with lights and sirens blazing, who liked to help by climbing ladders and running through buildings. On one occasion, Adell gave himself a testimonial dinner at which columnist Drew Pearson and television commentator Lou Gordon were paid speakers. The dinner reportedly was undersubscribed and Adell had to pay part of the costs himself.

Gordon says the job was simply a speaking engagement, says he did not know Robert Adell and says he said nothing about him in his remarks. ADELL ALSO HAD associates within the syndicate. He was one of those present at the Carlton House motel when it was raided for gambling earlier this year. Those arrested included Tony Giacalone, operating boss of the Detroit Mafia, and his brother, Vito, who last week drew his first jail term for blackjack possession. Adell disappeared between the raid and the bookings downtown; he was never charged and his name does not appear on the Detroit Police Department's list of those arrested.

At one time, Adell was close enough to Lazaros to loan him money, reportedly S15.000 which was subsequently repaid. On another occasion, June 11, 1966, Frank Adell, Robert's brother, loaned Delores Lazaros 58,000 of which $2,000 was repaid. Frank sued to recover the balance. Frank says the money was loaned to Delores only as a personal favor to Hudnut, who asked that the check be made to her as his "business associate." The date of the loan coincides with the Peter Lazaros-Hudnut dealings with Charles Nuzum, which ended up in fraud charges. Answering Frank's suit, Delores Lazaros contended that she had never received either the check or the money.

She said her signature was forged to the check. THE ADELL DIVORCE i3 one of the most lengthy in Oakland County records. Batteries of attorneys were involved, including Hudnut, who from time to time represented Adell. Briefly, the facts are these: Serene and Robert Adell were married Oct. 25, 1954, a date which Serene misjudged by a year in her original divorce complaint.

Married once before, Serene then had one child. In 1961 and again in 1962, Serene filed for divorce but both suits ended with reconciliation. When she filed a third time in 1961, Robert tried to have the action dismissed so he would not be forced to pay the costs of her successive and emotionally-prompted pleas for separation. But Adell also filed counter-suit for divorce, with both sides charging cruelty. The case dragged on for years with Serene's attorneys trying to determine the true amount of Robert's wealth and with Robert answering with accusations of evervthing from high living ation, one of the Adell businesses.

The entire Bronson-Hudnut. incident had its origin on July 27, 1961 more than six years earlier when Lazaros was charged with fraud in Oakland County. The fraud charge added up to more than With Lazaros's arrest began a seven-year odyssey through Michigan's criminal and appeals court system that would end with Lazaros suddenly, almost inexplicably, free; with the Michigan Attorney General on his side, asking, in effect, that he not be sent back to prison and with Peter talking eagerly to those he had avoided most: The cops. At times, the lengthy court record of the Lazaros case makes it appear that the Oakland County prosecutor's office indirectly aided Lazaros' efforts to delay the case. Looking back on the file, Thomas G.

Plunkett, a member of Bronson's staff, asks rhetorically: "It doesn't look good, does it?" rLL'N RETT, red-haired and lashing-eved, joined Bronson's staff in 1965, shortly after Bronson became prosecutor. Now 30, Plunkett has just been elected Oakland County's new prosecutor. Plunkett is able to explain actions of Bronson's office that helped cause a two-year delay in getting Lazaros into a prison cell. "Jerry Bronson had no part in the delay at any time," says Plunkett. On Dec.

8, 1960, according to trial testimony, the General Public Loan Co. of Ferndale began investigating fraud within its business operations. Warrants charging Peter Lazaros and seven other men with fraud were drawn July 27, 1961, by Charles Leaf, a state police investigator, and issued by Elmer C. Dieterle, a justice of the peace for West Bloomfield Township. Lazaros was charged with three counts: Obtaining money under fcJse pretenses, conspiracy to gain money by false pretenses, and conspiracy to avoid paying Michigan sales taxes.

Oakland County Circuit Court indictments were signed Oct. 16, 1961, by George F. Tay-lor, then county prosecutor. The case, when it went to trial June 5, 1962, was handled for Taylor's office by two assistant prosecutors, Jerome K. freed both men, claiming Bronson violated court rules and made the complaint against both men Invalid.

Thorburn repeatedly criticized Bronson's handling of the controversial case and an open feud developed between the two. Convicted again in 1967', Allen is now in jail. Finn, the Steren Assembly prosecutor, later became FHA director in Detroit and has subsequently entered private practice. Finn was supported for the FHA by Mayor Cavanagh, a classmate at the University of Detroit and a longtime friend. Now Lazaros's attorney, Finn won Lazaros' freedom with a habeas corpus petition to federal claiming error in the trial six years before.

Since Lazaros's release, Finn has repeatedly warned Lazaros not to make publlo statements which he cannot Continued on Page 13-C other old paintings don a long time ago (before Jackson Pollock), when they didn't know much. Usually means the same as the above, but is more obscure. A good term for erettin? the attention of the mora educated rearlr Delightfully ambiguous. Could Eyck, or bad like van Eyck. "AUSTERE So empty it's dull.

CTURALLY STREAMLINED" Fairly simple-minded. "ENTRANCING The structure is streamlined Into non-existence. Mainly used by female critics and reviewers. "PERSONAL The artist lives in a fantasy world. "QUIET He doesn't have much to sav.

"DEHUMANIZED He either can't draw the figure, or he hates people. "WIDELY His paintings are bought by people who like LawTence Welk. Art Definitions on in court, Serene was seeing another man, Stanley Kleinfeld, a New York dry-cleaning operator. Robert knew of Serene's affair; at one time, he interrupted them at Metropolitan Airport in the midst of an embrace, saying, he savs: "Pardon me, I'm her husband, Robert Adell." On the night of May SO, 1966, as the divorce proceeding was drawing to a close, a raiding party caught Serene and Kleinfeld in bed at the Adell home, 15.25 Ardmoor, Bloomfield Hills. Along on the raid were Robert and Frank Adell, Peter Lazaros.

James Hudnut, two photographers and at least one private detective, perhaps more. Some 40 pictures were taken, all of which are described as "sordid." Then Bloomfield Township police were called. On the complaint of Robert Adell but without warrants, Serene and Kleinfeld were arrested and charged with criminal adultery, a felony. The charge is unusual and seldom used in Michigan. Arrests on such a charge without warrants is even more extraordinary.

Warrants were issued the next day by the office of Oakland County Prosecutor S. Jerome Bronson, with Bronson's explicit approval. Police reports say the case had been referred to Bronson by phone the night of the raid itself and indicate that he approved the arrests without warrants. Bloomfield Township police and Township Attorney Thomas Dillon refuse to release reports on the adultery arrests, saying the files are now incomplete. SEVEN DAYS later, Adell filed a new petition which said that the circumstances of parental care in many respects had changed since the temporary custody order of 1964 granting custody to Serene.

He repeated allegations of adultery. Robert's criminal complaints against both his wife and her lover now hung over their heads. On July 7, 1966, a divorce decree was entered in favor of Robert Adell. Robert was ordered to pay $100 a week alimony, provide Serene a home and pay her $25,000 for the return of valuable jewelry. Custody of the children was awarded jointly to Serene and Robert and Robert was ordered to pay other support, most of which was contingent on Serene's remaining unmarried.

On July 25, 1966, the criminal adultery cases were dismissed on a prosecutor's motion supported by Robert Adell. Serene married Kleinfeld, losing her alimony payments and, ultimately, custody of the children. According to Hudnut, Lazaros' involvement with the raid was peripheral. He was, Hudnut says, just being helpful. If TVPICAL FACILE I hJ0-ROl1ANTtCzr I copisig ouxri )' with this Ay PRIMITIVE TVZ; vJ-S PshuawnC Jmts, ml Slang term.

Synonymous with: "Giving up the ship," "Fair-weather friend," "Selling out," and phrases along that line. Exact opposite of the honored American expression: "He took the bull by the horns." To a good American, few things are as loathesome a3 a "cop-out." Means It's a painting like a lot of.