Slain L.A. Lawyer Got Restraining Order Against Another Attorney in 2005
A California lawyer who was apparently murdered last week outside his upscale Los Angeles home had gotten a restraining order in 2005 against a litigant who made comments that he reportedly considered threatening.
The litigant, Christopher Gruys, who was then a Los Angeles tax lawyer, was being sued by a client of the slain attorney, Jeffrey Tidus. Tidus and a court reporter stated in sworn declarations at the time that Gruys took a photo of Tidus at a deposition and told him that friends would be looking for Tidus when he returned from a Caribbean vacation, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Authorities are looking at this and other cases handled by Tidus as they investigate what they have determined to be a homicide. However, no suspect has been identified and Gruys told the Times that investigators haven’t contacted him.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he told the newspaper, saying that he hadn’t heard about Tidus’ death. Gruys’ lawyer declined to comment further.
Gruys gave up his California law license in 2007 after pleading guilty to San Diego County charges that court records list as grand theft by false pretenses and filing a false claim for taxes, the newspaper reports. He had been put on an interim suspension earlier that year following a conviction for possessing an assault weapon, a state bar website says.
Tidus was shot in the head Dec. 7 and died the next morning in a hospital. He was 53 years old.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Prominent L.A. Lawyer Shot in Head Outside His Home Was Murdered”
