United States v. Rita Gluzman: 1997

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United States v. Rita Gluzman: 1997

Defendant: Rita Gluzman
Crime Charged: Interstate domestic violence
Chief Defense Lawyer: Lawrence Hocheiser
Chief Prosecutor: Deidre Daly
Judge: Barrington D. Parker, Jr.
Place: White Plains, New York
Date of Trial: April 30, 1997
Verdict: Guilty
Sentence: Life imprisonment without parole

SIGNIFICANCE: Rita Gluzman was the first woman to be convicted under the Violence Against Women Act 18 USC 2261.

Rita Gluzman, a former chemical engineer living in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, was convicted for crossing state lines with her cousin, Vladimir Zelenin, killing her husband Yakov Gluzman, and then chopping his body into 65 pieces in his apartment in Pearl River, New York.

Zelenin was arrested while dumping parts of the body in 10 plastic bags into the Passaic River on April 7, 1996, the day after the murder. He was found by police walking along the bank of the river, with bloody hands and blood on his clothes. In nearby cars, bags with body parts, bloody clothes, and tools used in dismembering the body were found. The fingertips of the body had been removed in an apparent attempt to conceal the identity of the victim. On Zelenin's arrest, he confessed, implicating Rita. He said that they had purchased the tools for dismembering the body in New Jersey, then went to the apartment and surprised Yakov when he entered.

Zelenin said they had killed Yakov with two axes, then dismembered the body with hacksaws and a scalpel. Rita's motive in the case, the prosecution would later allege, was that she feared her husband was going to divorce her, and she wanted to preserve her interest in a computer firm, ECI Technologies. Zelenin was employed in the company.

Rita was sought by police for several days, and then arrested April 12 on Long Island, where she had taken refuge in a cabin for visiting scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. She was found with travel books and flight information regarding Switzerland. She was first arrested on burglary charges, before federal charges were brought.

From Asylum to Affluence

The Gluzmans had been married for 27 years. Rita had gained some notoriety many years before as part of the Jewish exodus from the Soviet Union. Although she had been able to leave the country, her husband had not been granted an exit visa. She had emigrated first to Israel, and then to the United States, where she sought help to get her husband out. In 1971, she had asked for support from U.S. ambassador to the UN, George H.W. Bush, in her efforts to help her husband emigrate from Russia. She spoke at meetings of the United Jewish Appeal and the American Conference for Soviet Jews, and conducted a personal hunger strike.

Eventually, Yakov was granted an exit visa to emigrate to Israel. The couple then moved to the United States, where Yakov Gluzman continued his work in molecular biology, rising to a position as senior director of molecular research at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, Rockland County, New York. Gluzman, a prominent molecular biologist and cancer researcher, had also established the profitable computer firm ECI Technologies, in which he and his wife shared ownership.

Their marriage had become more and more difficult in the years before his death. Yakov claimed that his wife was running the electronics firm into the ground, spending more than $11,000 a month on herself. For her part, she suspected her husband maintained a mistress in Israel. Gluzman filed for divorce four months prior to his death, alleging his wife had become abusive and was spending too much money. Federal authorities later alleged that Rita had gone to Israel to obtain photos of her husband with another woman and had used the photos and illegal telephone taps to try to blackmail him.

Rita Prosecuted Under Federal Statute

After her arrest, Rita was charged by federal prosecutors under the Violence Against Women Act (passed in 1994 by Congress following the 0.j. Simpson case). The act contains gender-free language, and Rita was the only woman charged with violation of the new law among the three or four cases brought since it had been passed. The act was used because of the difficulty of bringing charges under New York State rules prohibiting convictions solely based on uncorroborated accomplice testimony. Since her accomplice Zelenin was the only witness against her, the federal charges appeared to be the only way to get a conviction for the murder.

At the trial for the murder, Zelenin admitted he had butchered the body of Yakov Gluzman, but argued that Rita had pressured him into the act. Zelenin agreed to testify in exchange for a lighter sentence, and sought political asylum. Rita Gluzman's defense attorney pointed out that Zelenin, who admitted the grisly crime, and who cursed Rita at the conclusion of his testimony, was an unreliable witness. The defense further pointed out that had Rita wanted to collect life insurance and title to shared property, she would hardly have engaged in a plot to dispose of her husband's body.

However, the prosecution argued that only Rita had a motive for the killing and that Zelenin would gain nothing. Rita had feared her husband would divorce her, move to Israel with his girlfriend, and take the proceeds of their lucrative business.

On April 30, 1997, Judge Barrington Parker convicted Rita of violation of the federal statute against interstate domestic violence and sentenced her to life in prison without parole. The pertinent section of 18 USC 2261 states in language carefully crafted to be gender-free: "A person who travels across a state line … with the intention to injure, harass, or intimidate that person's spouse or intimate partner, and who in the course of or as a result of such travel, intentionally commits a crime of violence and thereby causes bodily injury to such spouse or intimate partner, shall be punished…" Although known as the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), that language of the act very clearly covered the crime charged against Rita Gluzman.

Courts Dismiss Appeals

Rita Gluzman appealed her sentence on several grounds. In U.S. v. Gluzman 154 F.3d 49 (2nd Cir. 1998), the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied her appeal on August 28, 1998. Then the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on March 22, 1999. In that appeal her attorney Judd Berstein contested the constitutionality of the federal statute, claiming Congress exceeded its power to control interstate commerce by extending the commerce clause to cover domestic violence. Berstein also alleged that the jury selection system in White Plains, New York, by excluding jurors from the Bronx, tended to discriminate against minority representation in the jury pool. U.S. attorney Cathy Seibel argued for the federal government, showing precedents for use of the interstate commerce clause to protect against spousal abuse.

In a later appeal Rita argued that she had received ineffective counsel due to failure to use mental illness as a defense. In a decision on December 7, 2000, Judge Parker dismissed that appeal, noting that her careful planning was not symptomatic of someone insane. Although she might have been distraught at the thought of divorce, there was no evidence she was mentally ill. In his 16-page opinion he scolded Rita Gluzman's lawyers for raising that appeal.

—Rodney Carlisle