Rudin murder case witness critical of police response

A witness who clashed with police during one of Las Vegas’ highest-profile murder investigations is at odds with police again, this time over what he said is a slow-moving police investigation into a burglary at his home.

Yehuda Sharon, 66, said Las Vegas police detectives have failed to investigate a burglary at his south Las Vegas town home on Aug. 7. The burglars left behind what seems to be a trail of clues that haven’t been collected or examined by police.

“They (the police) are doing absolutely nothing,” said Sharon, a former intelligence officer with the Israeli military. “I mean I call them, I show them, I wrote to them, they could read it, but they do nothing.”

Las Vegas police dispute the account of Sharon, who frustrated police years earlier during a long law enforcement investigation into Margaret Rudin and the slaying of her husband, Ron, in 1994.

Las Vegas officer Misael Parra said this week that police are committed to finding who broke into Sharon’s home and stole his belongings.

“The investigation is still open,” Parra said. “It is an ongoing investigation.”

A witness of no value

A quarter-century ago, Sharon was at the center of a law enforcement and media firestorm in Las Vegas. He was close friends with Margaret Rudin, who was accused of shooting her millionaire husband as he slept in the couple’s Las Vegas home. Ron Rudin’s remains were later found burned in a cove at Nelson’s Landing. Margaret Rudin fled Las Vegas while under law enforcement investigation. She was on the run until her apprehension in Massachusetts in 1999.

Rudin was convicted of murder by a Clark County jury. She served nearly 20 years in prison before her release in January. To this day Margaret Rudin has denied involvement in her husband’s killing.

The case has received relentless national media attention, and Sharon, at one point, was in the middle of it all. He now calls the experience “My life as ‘America’s Most Wanted’s’ Secret Lover.”

Las Vegas police voiced suspicions during the investigation that Sharon was, in fact, Margaret’s secret lover. They also voiced suspicions Sharon was somehow involved in the disposal of Ron Rudin’s body. Sharon, however, said he was simply a friend of Margaret’s.

“I helped her with taxes,” Sharon said.

He came under suspicion, he said, when he innocently gave Margaret a ride to the airport during the height of the police investigation.

Sharon said he had a rock-solid alibi that showed he was not with Margaret on the night her husband was killed. A part of that alibi, he said, placed him at a gas station in California around the time of the slaying.

“What happens in Las Vegas stays in Vegas, but this was in Barstow,” Sharon said this week.

Sharon was never arrested or charged with anything. As police homed in on Margaret Rudin as a suspect in her husband’s death, prosecutors offered Sharon immunity to testify in the case against Margaret.

He then offered them testimony that was of no value to authorities, frustrating law enforcement.

Sharon continues to lives in Las Vegas and makes his living selling a unique oil called chrism to churches around the world. He said being in the middle of the Rudin investigation wasn’t all bad because people who got to know him realized he couldn’t have been involved.

“I got more business,” Sharon said.

A missing pickup

Sharon said in late July he traveled to California, then returned to find a break-in at his townhome near Maryland Parkway and Russell Road. His Nissan pickup, his credit card, a cellphone and various other belongings were stolen. Las Vegas police responded, documented the burglary and took some fingerprints, Sharon said.

Sharon’s stolen credit card was used twice at an area gas station after the burglary. A third attempted transaction was blocked by his credit card company. The stolen vehicle was eventually recovered by police at Fashion Show mall, Sharon said, and it was packed with belongings from people he doesn’t know. There were blankets, family photo albums, a FedEx receipt with a man’s name and address on it, a bullet and a man’s driver’s license in the front seat of the vehicle. None if it is Sharon’s, but when police released the truck to him, all of the belongings from other people were still in it.

“I’m the only one who has gone through any of it,” Sharon said.

Days after the burglary, Sharon said he started calling his stolen cellphone to see if anyone would answer, and eventually, someone did. A woman told Sharon he would sell him his cellphone back to him for $200, so he went with his neighbor to meet the woman at a casino on North Rancho Drive. There, he got his phone back without paying for it, then called police. The retrieval of the phone was documented through a Las Vegas police recovered property report, but Sharon said police never followed up with him.

He said he has delivered a lengthy written narrative to Las Vegas police about all the evidence in the case and called multiple times and has gotten no response.

“I try to get ahold of the detectives just to ask simple questions,” Sharon said.

On Wednesday the Review-Journal inquired about the investigation into Sharon’s case. Parra said a detective has been assigned and that any delay in a response was because police are simultaneously investigating violent crimes that sometimes have to take priority over property crimes. On Thursday, Sharon said a detective called him and left him a message. He has since been unable to reach her because she is off until Monday.

All of this has left Sharon frustrated. He expressed concerns that a monthlong delay in getting the investigation started may cause problems in the possibility of arresting suspects in the future.

“I’ve done all the work for them,” Sharon said. “I’m the one who put it all together.”

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.