Forsher v. Bugliosi

• Decision Date: 10 April 1980
• Docket Number: S.F. 24062
• Citation: 26 Cal.3d 792,163 Cal.Rptr. 628,608 P.2d 716
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 608 P.2d 716, 6 Media L. Rep. 1097 James FORSHER, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Vincent BUGLIOSI et al., Defendants and Respondents

Page 628

163 Cal.Rptr. 628

26 Cal.3d 792, 608 P.2d 716, 6 Media L. Rep. 1097

James FORSHER, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Vincent BUGLIOSI et al., Defendants and Respondents.

S.F. 24062.

Supreme Court of California

April 10, 1980.

Scott Nobel and Belzer, Jackl & Lane, Oakland, for plaintiff and appellant.

Pillsbury, Madkson Y Sutro, Walter R. Allan and Jerome C. Dougherty, San Francisco, for defendants and respondents.

MANUEL, Justice

Plaintiff James Forsher appeals from the judgment of dismissal entered pursuant to an order sustaining a general demurrer without leave to amend to his first amended complaint for libel and invasion of privacy. We affirm.

The defendant, Vincent Bugliosi (Bugliosi), was at one time a deputy district attorney, and in this capacity prosecuted and obtained a conviction against Charles Manson and certain of his coterie for the highly publicized crimes collectively referred to as the Tate-LaBianca killings. ¹ Bugliosi has been recognized by the public as being an authority on these killings and on the members and activities of that loose-knit group of persons known as the Manson Family.

Bugliosi and the other defendants are variously the authors and publishers of the book Helter-Skelter, which purports to be an inside account of the Tate-LaBianca killings, the subsequent murder trial and of the criminal activities of the Manson Family.

The edition of the book complained of is more than 650 pages long. Its cover proclaims its nature as an inside account of the "whole story --including the never-before-revealed 'retaliation' slayings--of the most baffling mass murder case in the annals of American crime...." At the outset the book sets forth a "cast of characters." Included is Ronald Hughes (Hughes), described as being "once Charles Manson's 'hippie lawyer,' he later defended Leslie Van Houten [member of Manson family on trial in the Tate-LaBianca matter], up until the time he was murdered by the Family." The killing of Hughes is described as being one of the first of the retaliation murders.

The book further raises question about the proficiency of the various police agencies involved in the investigation activities of the Manson clan, the failure to pursue leads and the destruction and overlooking of evidence being noted continually throughout the book. ² The book recounts events in great detail leading up to the prosecution of Manson and others. It was in the course of this trial that Hughes, while representing Leslie Van Houten, failed to appear at trial. ³ Specifically, plaintiff refers us to the following account:

"When court resumed on Monday, November 30, Ronald Hughes was absent. "Quizzed by [Judge] Older, none of the other defense attorneys knew where he was. Fitzgerald said that he had last talked to Ron on Thursday or Friday and that he sounded O.K. at the time. Hughes often spent his weekends camping at Sespe Hot Springs.... It was possible that Hughes had been stranded there.

"The next day we learned that Hughes had gone to Sespe on Friday with two teenagers, James Forsher and Lauren Elder, in Miss Elder's Volkswagen. The pair--who were questioned but not held--said that when it began raining, they had decided to return to L.A., but Hughes had decided to stay over until Sunday. When the two tried to leave, however, their auto became mired down, and they were forced to abandon it and hike out.

"Three other youths had seen Hughes on the morning of the following day, Saturday the twenty-eighth. He was alone .., well away from the flood area. Chatting with them briefly, he appeared neither ill nor in any danger. Polygraphed, the three were found to have no additional knowledge and they were not held. Since Forsher and Elder had last seen Hughes a day earlier, they apparently were not polygraphed and their story was taken at face value.

"Owing to the continued bad weather, it was two days before the Ventura Sheriff's Office could get up a helicopter to search the area. In the meantime, rumors abounded. One was to the effect that hughes had deliberately skipped, either to avoid argument or to sabotage the trial. Knowing Ron, I seriously doubted if this was true. I became convinced it wasn't when reporters visited the place where Hughes lived.

"He slept on a mattress in a garage behind the home of a friend. According to reporters, the place was a mess--one remarked that he wouldn't even let his dog sleep there. But on the wall of the garage, neatly framed and carefully hung, was Ronald Hughes' bar certificate.

"Although there were numerous reports that a man fitting Hughes' description had "On December 3, after consulting with Paul Fitzgerald, Older appointed Maxwell Keith co-counsel for Leslie.

been seen in various places--boarding a bus in Reno, driving on the San Bernardino freeway, drinking at a bar in Baja--none checked out. On December 2, Judge Older told Leslie Van Houten that he felt a co-counsel should be brought into represent her during Hughes' absence. Leslie said she would refuse any other attorney.

"A quiet, somewhat shy man in his mid-forties, whose conservative clothing and courtroom manner were in sharp contrast to those of Hughes, Keith had an excellent reputation in the legal community. Those who knew him well described him as conscientious, totally ethical, and completely professional, and it was clear from the start that he would be representing his client and not Manson.

"Sensing this, Manson asked to have all the defense attorneys dismissed ('they arn't our lawyers; they won't listen to us') so he and the girls could represent themselves. He also demanded that the case be reopened so they could put on a defense. They had twenty-one witnesses waiting to testify, he said. Both requests were denied.

"...

"Neither the air search nor a subsequent ground search of the Sespe area yielded any trace of Hughes. The abandoned Volkswagen was found, with a batch of court transcripts inside, but other papers Hughes was known to have had, including a secret psychiatric report on Leslie Van Houten, were missing.

"...

"The most persistent rumor was that Hughes had been murdered by the Family. there was, at this time, no evidence of this. But there was more than ample cause for speculation.

"Though once little more than an errand boy for Manson, during the course of the trial Hughes had grown increasingly independent, until the two had finally split over whether there should be a defense--Hughes strongly opposing his client's taking the stand to absolve Charlie. I also heard from several sources, including Paul Fitzgerald, that Hughes was afraid of Manson. It was possible that he showed this fear, which in Manson's case, was like waving a red flag before a bull. Fear turned Charlie on.

"There could have been several reasons for his murder, if it was that. It may have been done to intimidate the other defense attorneys into letting Manson put on a defense during the penalty trial (one was so shaken by Hughes' disappearance that he went on a bender which ended in his arrest for drunken driving). Equally likely, it could have been a tactic to delay the trial--with the hope that it would result in a mistrial, or set the stage for a reversal on appeal.

"Speculation, nothing more. Except for one odd, perhaps unrelated, incident. On December 2, four days after Hughes was last seen alive, fugitives Bruce Davis and Nancy Pitman, aka Brenda McCann, voluntarily surrendered to the police. Two of the Family's most hard-core members,Pitman had been missing for several weeks after failing to appear for sentencing on a forgery charge, while Davis--who had been involved in both the Hinman and Shea murders, who had picked up the gun with which Zero had 'committed suicide' but had somehow left no prints, and who was the chief suspect in the slaying of two young Scientology students--had evaded capture for over seven months.

"Maybe it was just the proximity in time that linked the two events in my mind: Hughes' disappearance; Davis' and Pitman's surprise surrender. But I couldn't shake the feeling that in some way the two incidents might be related."

Approximately 110 pages later, plaintiff's name again appears as part of the following:

"With three exceptions, these are all the known murders which have been proven, or are suspected to be, linked to the Manson Family. Are there more? I've discussed this with officers from LAPD ad LASO, and we tend to think that there probably "As for those three other murders, two of them occurred as late as 1972.

are, because these people liked to kill. But there is no hard evidence.

"On November 8, 1972, A hiker near the Russian River resort community of Guerneville, in Northern California, was a hand protruding from the ground. When police exhumed the body, it was found to be that of a young man wearing the dark-blue tunic of a Marine dress uniform. He had been shotgunned and decapitated.

"The victim was subsequently identified as James T. Willett, twenty-six, a former Marine from Los Angeles County. This information appeared on radio and TV newscasts on Friday, November 10.

"On Saturday, November 11, Stockton, California, police spotted Willett's station wagon parked in front of a house at 720 West Flora Street. When refused entry to the house, they broke in, arresting two men and two woman and confiscating a number of pistols and shotguns.

"Both women had Manson Family X's on their foreheads. They were Priscilla Cooper, twenty-one, and Nancy Pitman, aka Brenda McCann, twenty. A few minutes after police entered the residence, a third female called, asking to be picked up and given a ride to the house. The police obliged, and also arrested Lynette Fromme, ada Squeaky, twenty-four, ex-officio leader of the Family in Manson's absence.

"The two men were Michael Monfort, twenty-four, and James Craig, thirty-three, both state prison escapees wanted for a number of armed robberies in various parts of California....