Surgeon Says He Lied About Molesting Girl to ‘Bait’ Ex-Wife

A well-known Santa Ana surgeon testified Tuesday that he told his former wife, who is on trial for kidnaping their two children, that he was sexually involved with their daughter only to “bait” her after her accusations against him were published in the Israeli news media.

Dr. Ron Lapin explained that he made the remark to his former wife, actress Orly Lapin, because she “had opened warfare” against him when, he said, she falsely told the news media that he molested their daughter. In the early 1980s, the surgeon drew the ire of California medical officials for performing so-called “bloodless” operations.

Orly Lapin, 31, who is being tried in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, is accused of kidnaping the couple’s two children on July 13, 1987, when she failed to return them to their father’s home after she took them for a weekend visit.

Arrested in November

She lived under an assumed name in Paso Robles with the children until she was arrested there in November, authorities said. Investigators had searched for her in Las Vegas, Mexico, Israel and California.

Ron Lapin, 48, was awarded custody of their 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son after the couple were divorced in early 1987. Orly Lapin, an Israeli actress, now lives in Beverly Hills.

Orly Lapin, who is free on $35,000 bail, faces up to three years in state prison if convicted of kidnaping.

Before the children were allegedly abducted, the couple had engaged in a bitter feud that centered on accusations of adultery, extortion and child molestation. Orly Lapin claimed that Ron Lapin was molesting their daughter and that that is the reason she took the children last year.

But Ron Lapin and Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Chinn said Orly Lapin falsely accused her former husband of molestation as a ploy to gain custody of the two children.

On Tuesday, Ron Lapin listened to a tape of a telephone conversation he and his ex-wife had in Hebrew a few weeks before the children were abducted. During the conversation, he admitted to Orly Lapin’s defense attorney, John Horwitz, that he told her he had sexual relations with their daughter.

But on further questioning by Chinn, Lapin said he was only trying to goad his former wife because of her comments to the Israeli news media.

“She was smearing me,” he said. “I tried to bait her with everything possible to get her to have a meeting” concerning their legal problems.

Levy Robinowitz, who interpreted the tape from Hebrew to English and also testified on behalf of the prosecution, said it appeared that Lapin knew his former wife was tape-recording their conversation.

“I didn’t do anything,” the interpreter said Ron Lapin told his ex-wife regarding the allegations of child molestation. “You are a person who will cut your own throat,” the interpreter quoted Ron Lapin as saying.

Orly Lapin cried while Robinowitz recited from the English version of the tape-recording transcript.

In earlier testimony, Ron Lapin said his ex-wife was greedy and vindictive and had once demanded $100,000 from him. Since her arrest on suspicion of kidnaping, Ron Lapin also has accused his former wife of vandalism and threatening to bomb an Anaheim bank in which he has a financial interest. Orly Lapin has not been prosecuted on either charge.

Monthlong Trial Expected

The defense had yet to make an opening statement during the first two days of a trial that is expected to last a month. Horwitz said Tuesday that he expected Orly Lapin to testify in about two weeks.

Ron Lapin became very popular several years ago with religious groups, especially the Jehovah’s Witnesses, because of his willingness to operate without transfusions and use surgical techniques to minimize bleeding.

The California Medical Assn. later filed malpractice suits against him. But after years of legal battles, the lawsuits were dropped when Lapin promised that he no longer would perform bloodless operations.