SWAT team arrests a couple charged in extortion scheme

By Jason Baker

A former Santa Clara County deputy sheriff and his wife were arrested on June 4 on charges of extorting more than $1.3 million in cash and promissory notes from two Los Gatos businessmen and a Monte Sereno woman.

Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department SWAT team officers arrested David E. Slavin, 37, and Elizabeth Slavin, 39, on federal warrants at the couple's West San Jose townhouse. A search of their car yielded $250,000 in cash sealed in shrink wrap, investigators said.

A San Jose grand jury on June 2 indicted Slavin, a self-proclaimed martial arts champion, and his wife, a records clerk with the sheriff's department.

Authorities accused David Slavin in an alleged scheme to swindle Larry Lam and Rick Donaldson, owners of Studio Kicks, a martial-arts school on N. Santa Cruz Avenue, through violent threats and intimidation. Indictments charge his wife with aiding and abetting the alleged scheme.

Court documents show that Slavin promoted himself as a kickboxer and aerobics instructor at area athletic clubs and sought to frighten people with his reputed links to the crime world.

In an affidavit, authorities alleged that Donaldson and Lam, who reluctantly let Slavin do some remodeling to their studio in 1997, were each forced by Slavin to sign a note for $70,000 as a payment for about $10,000 worth of work. Lam, a martial arts champion who has appeared in numerous films, said Slavin took advantage of the fact that he was often away from the studio for on-location shoots outside the United States.

The notes were assigned to a man Slavin identified as his "uncle," Nicoli Pacini, whom Slavin described as a "godfather type." Prosecutors suspect Pacini was an alias that Slavin used. Investigators said some of the checks were reassigned to Slavin's wife, who deposited them.

Lam alleged that Slavin told both him and Donaldson that the reason for the separate notes was that if one of them "should disappear for some reason," the other would be responsible for the debt.

Slavin also allegedly forced Donaldson to sign the note by pressing the blade of a samurai sword across the back of Donaldson's hand and threatening to slice off his fingers.

"He [Slavin] was extremely paranoid. He always carried a large gym bag of money and he always had a weapon. It was very convincing." Lam said what was most upsetting is the damage Slavin caused to his school's reputation. "He gives martial arts people a bad name," he said.

Donaldson first contacted the police in April, records show.

David Slavin also is charged with extorting money from a 48-year-old Monte Sereno woman who attended one of his aerobics classes last year at the Courtside Athletic Club in Los Gatos.

Court documents show Slavin and the unidentified woman discussed the possibility of starting an exclusive fitness club of their own. According to the affidavit, Slavin told her a short time later he already had contracted for $1.6 million worth of exercise equipment and that she now owed him $1 million. The woman signed a $1 million promissory note and paid Slavin $240,000 when he threatened to "send people to beat her," the complaint showed.

At arraignment, assistant U.S. attorneys Jeff Nedrow and Elizabeth De La Vega asked magistrate Judge Patricia Trumbull to hold David Slavin without bail. She set bail for his wife at $200,000.

Federal officials believe there are additional extortion victims.

Police Report

Some numbers obviously count for more

Photo: St. Mary's School international festivities

Photo: dredg concert at LGHS raises money for refugees

Ytuki becomes the Official Millennium Bug

Picture From the Past

Sports Briefs

Local athletes prepare for Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game

Summer sports camps for youth