Judge: Bechler transcripts off-limits to media

Greg Risling

An Orange County Superior Court judge on Friday removed from the court

file confidential transcripts that reportedly speak to the disappearance

and presumed death of a Newport Beach woman.

Judge Kazuharu Makino returned the documents to Orange County prosecutors

after they were released to the Daily Pilot earlier this week.

The transcripts, part of the prosecution’s evidence, include a taped

conversation between 32-year-old Eric Bechler of Newport Beach and his

girlfriend.

Bechler is accused of killing his wife, Pegye, three years ago while the

couple were celebrating their fifth anniversary on a boating trip off the

coast of Newport Beach. The court papers also include a detective’s

interview with the girlfriend, Tina New.

The documents were entered into evidence after a preliminary hearing last

Friday. However, they were never sealed and the Daily Pilot obtained a

copy.

Though several broadcast and print news agencies were clamoring for the

transcripts Friday, Makino ruled that no other news organizations would

be allowed to view them.

Bechler’s attorney, John Barnett, said he hopes the story doesn’t affect

his client’s right to a fair trial.

“My interest is to seek to avoid tainting a jury pool,” he said. “The

concern is we will have a prejudiced jury. Whether this will be

admissible remains to be seen.”

During the two-hour conversation, Bechler talks at length about his

wife’s death to New, who was wearing a recording device. Bechler told New

that his wife was controlling of the couple’s three children and that he

felt she was going to take them away from him.

Bechler also said he “would never, ever do anything to harm anybody ever

again.”

Prosecutors contend Bechler killed his wife on July 6, 1997. He claims he

was riding a Boogie board while being towed by the powerboat the couple

had rented when a swell knocked him off and into the ocean. When he

surfaced, his 38-year-old wife had disappeared and the boat was circling

in the distance.

Prosecutors allege Bechler used a dumbbell weight to kill his wife and

then dumped her body overboard. Authorities searched the area for several

days, but Pegye Bechler was never found.

There is mention of the fateful boating trip during the taped

conversation. When New asks about the purported murder plot, Bechler

responds, “Oh yeah, I thought it out pretty well.”

New also tries to fill in the blanks prosecutors so desperately wanted to

hear. Bechler’s motive may have been obtaining a $2.5-million life

insurance policy in his wife’s name.

“The part that scares me the most is ... I mean you hit her over the head

and she didn’t feel it,” New stated. “How you could physically do that

...

“If it’s about money, if that was the reason, I could maybe understand

it.”

“Partly yeah,” Bechler responded. “The money was just for our kids and

... maintain our lifestyle.”

Bechler will be formally arraigned Tuesday.