Legal experts say that a new inquiry into the 30-year-old death of actress Natalie Wood is highly unlikely to lead to charges against the late actress’ husband, Robert Wagner, or anyone else.
“Based on what we’ve heard so far, the chances [of the investigation leading to criminal charges] are zero to nothing,” Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, told TheWrap.
“I would classify this as silliness -- not the drowning, which was tragic, but the idea that 30 years later a witness comes forward and tells what he calls the real story and that leads to criminal charges. As a prosecutor, you just roll your eyes.”
Indeed, leading criminal lawyers told TheWrap that the only crime that would circumvent the statute of limitations would be murder. And that would require the emergence of multiple witnesses and compelling physical evidence.
Also read: Detective in Natalie Wood Case Insists Her Death Was an Accident (Video)
“Unless there’s something earth-shattering - some DNA evidence on a body that’s probably badly decomposed - they don’t have a case,” Steve Meister, a Los Angeles defense attorney and former prosecutor, told TheWrap.
Furthermore, the man who helped prompt the new inquiry, boat captain Dennis Davern, is compromised as a trial witness, the experts agreed. Davern admitted he lied to police in years past, has a book out on the "West Side Story" star's death and says he was drunk on the night in question.
Also read: Natalie Wood Case: Police Contacted Boat Owner Weeks Ago
“You’ll need a lot more than the captain’s testimony to make a case,” Jerod Gunsberg, a Los Angeles-based criminal attorney, told TheWrap. “It would not take much to discredit him on the stand.”
Though the book in question, “Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour,” was published in 2009, Davern has made frequent references to it in interviews, and his co-author, Marti Rulli, has been a constant presence on television and in print.
It was not by accident that Alan Nierob, a spokesman for Wagner, floated the idea that such a witness to an alleged crime might be trying to profit from the investigation being re-opened.
In a statement, Nierob said “[The Wagner family] fully support the efforts of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and trusts they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death.”
Rick Kramer, a spokesman for Davern, told TheWrap that the captain did not come forward to make a buck off the case. He said Davern has no plans to sell his story to the media and points out that the book is out of print and only available in electronic form.
"Dennis has been hoping for an investigation for decades, and he will do anything that he can to be of service," Kramer said.
