Attorneys agree to dismissal of ‘black widow’ Margaret Rudin’s wrongful conviction suit

A lawsuit alleging Margaret Rudin was wrongfully convicted of killing her husband was dismissed this week.

Rudin’s attorneys agreed that a judge should dismiss the suit, which was filed in May 2024. Court documents did not detail why the suit was being dismissed.

Adam Breeden, Rudin’s attorney, said Thursday that he could not say why the suit was dismissed because of attorney-client confidentiality.

“I can only say that the matter was dismissed without any decision on the merits,” he said in an emailed statement.

In October, attorneys agreed to pause the case before the discovery process was complete.

“Plaintiff is currently experiencing some issues which make her active participation in discovery impracticable,” Rudin’s attorneys wrote in court documents.

The lawsuit had alleged that prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to charge Rudin in her husband’s death. Rudin served nearly 20 years in prison before she was released on parole in 2020, at the age of 76.

U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware had also vacated her conviction, finding that Rudin received ineffective counsel from her late defense attorney before a jury convicted her in 2001 of killing her husband, Ron Rudin.

The Clark County district attorney’s office declined to retry her on a murder charge, and a Las Vegas judge formally dismissed the criminal charge against her in December 2024. Formally dismissing the charges cleared the way for Rudin’s lawsuit to move forward.

The lawsuit would have allowed Rudin to pursue a certificate of innocence and payment from the state under a 2019 law that lets people seek monetary relief for wrongful convictions.

Rudin, who has long denied she was involved in her husband’s murder, previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she hoped to obtain a certificate of innocence before her death.

The last significant movement in the lawsuit came when the Metropolitan Police Department filed a motion in June to intervene in the case. A section of the motion appeared to be aimed at Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office, arguing that the attorney general would not “adequately represent (Metro’s) interests.”

Experienced attorneys said the motion could have been prompted by a desire to avoid a federal lawsuit similar to Kirstin “Blaise” Lobato’s case, in which a federal jury awarded her $34 million after finding Metro detectives fabricated evidence.

In August, District Judge Joanna Kishner denied Metro’s motion in part, finding that Rudin’s lawsuit does not “necessarily risks opening LVMPD to financial exposure,” and that there was no evidence that the state of Nevada could not adequately protect Metro’s interests in the case.

Rudin’s case had received national media attention, with the television show “America’s Most Wanted” dubbing her a “black widow.”

Ron Rudin was a multimillionaire who made most of his money in local real estate deals. Margaret Rudin’s lawsuit claimed that her husband had a long list of enemies in his personal and professional life, including “questionable real estate investments.”

He disappeared from the couple’s home in December 1994. His body was found the next month near Lake Mohave, in the remains of a burned-out truck that police claimed was linked to Margaret Rudin.

Margaret Rudin was indicted on a murder charge in April 1997. She fled Las Vegas and was apprehended in Massachusetts two years later.

Her lawsuit had claimed there was never any DNA evidence or fingerprints linking her to the scene or murder weapon. Margaret Rudin’s attorneys also wrote that she would have been “physically incapable” of putting her husband’s body in the trunk and dragging it into the desert near Lake Mohave.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.