JUDGE DENIES HUNT NEW MURDER TRIAL.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

A Superior Court judge has denied Billionaire Boys Club leader Joe Hunt's bid for a new trial in the murder of Ron Levin, concluding that Hunt's 1987 trial was fair and that witnesses who claimed to have seen Levin alive were either mistaken or not credible.

``After any trial, many facts come to light. . . . But a trial cannot by its very nature be perfect,'' Judge Stephen Czuleger wrote in a 38-page ruling Friday.

``Further, this court concludes that Ronald Levin is dead and that petitioner (Hunt) . . . killed him.''

Levin disappeared in June 1984, and his body was never found.

Hunt's attorneys had attempted to convince the judge that his 1987 trial counsel was incompetent and new testimony from five witnesses indicated Levin is alive and well.

Prosecutors said Friday that they considered the testimony from witnesses who said they saw Levin alive well after the trial as a phenomenon akin to Elvis sightings.

Hunt's team considered the testimony strong, credible evidence.

``I am devastated. I am just totally devastated,'' said Hunt's wife, Tammy, a paralegal who attended every day of the hearings for a new trial.

``What do you have to do to prove that there has been an injustice done? We felt that we had far beyond what the standard is; yet it didn't do any good.''

Joe Hunt testified on his own behalf during the recent court hearing, attempting to show that he had no motive to kill Levin and that Levin is a con man who faked his own death to avoid his own approaching criminal prosecution.

Prosecutors said the judge was fair to both sides and gave Hunt's lawyers plenty of time to argue their points.

``I never had a doubt, and - with all my heart - this is the right outcome,'' said prosecutor Imogene Katayama. ``Of course, we're all really pleased.''

The prosecutor worked alongside attorney Andy McMullen with a team of investigators, law clerks and others for 2-1/2 years.

Katayama said she was not concerned about the witnesses who testified to seeing Levin alive.

``It's a phenomenon that I initially thought we'd have time to explore,'' she said. ``It's like Elvis sightings. It never stops.''

Judge Czuleger wrote that a number of the witnesses who claimed to have seen Levin alive lacked credibility, and he called one of them ``pathetic.''

In the 1987 trial a fellow member of the Bombay Bicycle Club, also known as the Billionaire Boys Club, testified that Hunt confessed to the murder and said he and a bodyguard so efficiently disposed of the body that it would never be found.

Czuleger's ruling did not end Hunt's bid for a new trial. Tammy Hunt said she and her husband are prepared to turn to the federal courts.

Rowan Klein, one of the attorneys who represented Hunt in the recent hearings, suggested numerous grounds to try again for a new trial, and he contended contended that Judge Czuleger was biased from the beginning.

Klein charged Friday that the judge essentially tied one arm behind Hunt's back when he narrowed the number of issues Hunt could address in his quest for a new trial.

Klein has charged everything from a purported conflict of interest on the judge's part to contentions that Czuleger's lack of experience as a defense attorney may have hampered his ability to evaluate the failings of Hunt's 1987 trial attorney.

``I don't think Mr. Hunt got a fair shake,'' Klein said. ``This case has a bad smell.''

Hunt was the charismatic leader of a social and business club made up of his wealthy Beverly Hill friends.

The club was based on get-rich schemes that were supposed to finance a luxurious lifestyle.

Prosecutors have contended that Hunt, after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars of the club's money in commodities deals, turned to Levin with a business arrangement. But this time it was Hunt who was duped in a phony commodities hoax set up by Levin.

Star prosecution witness Dean Karny, who met Hunt in junior high school, testified in the 1987 trial that Hunt confessed that he and a bodyguard went to Levin's Beverly Hills apartment in June 1984, coerced him into signing a $1.5 million check, shot him in the back of the head, and disposed of his body.

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Photo: Joe Hunt

Claims victim alive