Retrial Begins for Schlitz Heir in Sexual Abuse Case

The heir to the Schlitz beer fortune is on trial in Santa Monica facing multiple sex offense charges, including charges of assaulting his daughter, who was 4 at the time.

Walter David Tallmadge, 65, the great-grandson of former Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. President Henry Uihlein, has been held in the Los Angeles County Jail since 1995, charged with 15 counts of sexually assaulting two children--his daughter and a 19-year-old friend of the family.

Tallmadge was tried in the case in October 1996, but the jury could not reach a verdict. This week, a new jury has been hearing testimony in Santa Monica Superior Court from alleged victims who are now adults.

One of the alleged victims, identified only as Deborah, calmly told the jury that she was molested by Tallmadge 31 years ago at age 9.

At the time, her father met with Tallmadge’s father and agreed not to press charges, she testified, but three decades later Deborah decided to fly to California to testify against Tallmadge because “it’s the right thing to do.”

“This needs to be stopped. He can’t do this to other kids.”

Tallmadge, who had been convicted of one sexual assault before the alleged attack 31 years ago, did go on to assault other children, according to court records. In 1985 he was convicted of sexual assaulting minors in Wisconsin and California. In another case in 1986, he was sentenced to two years in a California prison for statutory rape.

According to prosecutors, Tallmadge’s prior convictions lend credibility to the latest accusations.

But in his closing arguments last year, defense attorney Leonard Levine told the jury that Tallmadge’s estranged third wife, Laura, is using her husband’s past convictions to prevent him from gaining custody of their child.

That child was scheduled to take the stand Thursday, but on Wednesday night--the night of her eighth birthday--the girl became too sick to sleep.

Vomiting kept her up all night, and fever and chills kept her from walking into the courthouse the next day to testify against her father.

As soon as Thursday’s court session began, Judge Robert T. Altman instructed the jury to go home.

If Tallmadge’s daughter--one of his six children--is feeling better, the jury will hear testimony from the girl today, Altman said.

As the prosecutor and defense attorneys discussed the child’s well-being Thursday, Tallmadge, a hunched and graying man in thick McCarthy-era glasses, appeared emotionless.

During court recesses, however, Tallmadge animatedly spoke to his attorneys and others in court about weapons. A gun enthusiast with a penchant for minutiae, Tallmadge talked about various firearms, detailing gun makers’ personality traits.

According to Paul Bucher, a prosecutor from Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Tallmadge has several firearms convictions.

A raid on his Wisconsin home last year produced a cache of firearms, pornography and sexually explicit pictures and videos of children--some of which Tallmadge had photographed himself, Bucher said. Some of that information is being used as evidence in the current case.

Bucher, who testified in Santa Monica last year, has assisted prosecutors in the California case.

“If he gets acquitted in California, I’ve got a dozen counts in Wisconsin to charge him with,” Bucher said. “He’s not going anywhere soon, that’s for sure.”