SAN RAFAEL -- Eighteen members and former members of the controversial Synanon Foundation were indicted Wednesday on charges of assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment of a former member.
The sealed indictment, handed up by a Marin County grand jury, charges the individuals with participating in the 1978 kidnapping and beating of Kim Myers, a former member of the drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization.
'The acts were undertaken by people under the direct supervision of persons who are in high positions in Synanon for the express purpose to instill fear ... (and) to set an example for people who were thinking of leaving or have been critical of Synanon,' said Attorney General George Deukmejian.
No Synanon spokesman was available for comment.
The attorney general charged that persons named in the indictment kidnapped Myers, beat him and falsely imprisoned him, 'and members took steps to cover it up.'
The indictment alleged that Myers was held against his will at Synanon's ranch in West Marin County and later escaped from a car at the Golden Gate Bridge toll booth as he was being taken to Synanon offices in San Francisco.
Deukmejian said the incident was reported to the Marin County sheriff's department, which later asked the attorney general's office to step in.
The attorney general said Myers was 'kidnapped, transported within the county of Marin and also kidnapped and transported between Marin and ... San Francisco. He was beaten after being kidnapped in Marin County and held against his will.
'Part of what was done to him was to set an example for others who might have considered leaving Synanon.'
Myers had left Synanon but later rejoined.
Deukmejian said some of the persons being investigated by the state were named in the indictment but declined to say how many others might be involved.
Bail was set at $10,000 for those accused of kidnapping and $5,000 for those accused of the other crimes.
The indictment charged Leon Levy, Doug Robson, William Lundberg, Jon Kaufman, Arnett Jamison, Doug Muhly, Bruce Levine, Philip Bourdette, David Benjamin and Andy Cretella with kidnapping.
Levy, Robson, Lundberg, Kaufman, Levine, Jamison, Sid Frank, Rodney Mullen and Theodore Dibble were charged with false imprisonment.
Levy, Robson, Kaufman and Frank were charged with assault likely to causegreat bodily injury.
Bourdette, Benjamin, David F. Gomez, Liz Missakian, Chris Halberman, Ronald Cook and Howard Garfield were charged with being accessories to a felony.
