The ex-wife of “Star Trek: Voyager” actor Robert Picardo won a round in court Tuesday when a Los Angeles judge dismissed what remained of a lawsuit filed by family members of a man who alleged she was complicit in his murder.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch issued his ruling after none of the plaintiffs or their lawyers showed up for a hearing on Linda Jean Pawlik’s dismissal motion.
The judge stated in his written decision that the plaintiffs waited too long to file the case. He also noted that no papers were filed by the plaintiffs in opposition to the dismissal motion.
Pawlik, 65, of Pasadena was sued in October 2017 in connection with the 2014 death of 43-year-old Edward Mello. The plaintiffs in the suit were Mello’s widow, Adriana Martinez; their three adult daughters, Christina, Isabella and Victoria Mello; and Mello’s two minor sons from another relationship.
The sons were dropped as plaintiffs in October and Tuesday’s motion only pertained to Mello’s widow and daughters.
Mello died Oct. 29, 2014, of a single gunshot wound to the head in a Woodland Hills hotel room on Ventura Boulevard. Jorge Rodriguez was arrested the following month and charged with murder.
The suit stated that Picardo and Pawlik were involved in a bitter divorce at the time. Pawlik hired an accountant who was living with Edward Mello to deal with the divorce assets, and both the accountant and Mello subsequently moved in with Pawlik, according to the complaint, which also alleged that both Pawlik and the accountant were methamphetamine abusers.
The plaintiffs alleged the accountant introduced Pawlik to Rodriguez and that Pawlik gave Rodriguez the gun used to kill Mello after she suspected the victim of stealing her property.
Pawlik subsequently set up a hotel room meeting between Rodriguez and Mello, where Rodriguez “carried out the plan concocted with Pawlik and fatally shot and killed Mello,” the suit alleged.
“As part of their plan, Pawlik and Rodriguez conspired to call the police and report the murder as a possible suicide by Mello,” the complaint alleged.
Pawlik was sentenced in February 2018 to three years probation after pleading no contest to a charge of being an accessory after the fact. Rodriguez, now 39, was sentenced in June 2017 to 21 years in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter and other charges. Both were sentenced in Van Nuys Superior Court.