Doris Duke Nurse Gets 8 Years in Prison for Theft

By PAUL LIEBERMAN

Feb. 29, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The deathbed nurse who alleged that Doris Duke was murdered with morphine was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday for stealing jewelry and other valuables from a string of wealthy Westside patients.

To the end, Tammy Payette, 28, stuck by her mystery novel scenario that threw Duke’s $1.2-billion estate into turmoil: that Duke’s former butler and doctor killed the 80-year-old heiress with drugs and that the trauma from her own role drove her to steal from other patients, including cosmetics czar Max Factor.

But despite her attorney’s insistence that Payette was a nurse “beloved by her patients” and that she needed counseling, not prison time, Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht handed down nearly the maximum sentence after a full-day hearing in the Malibu Courthouse--including emotional statements from victims who told how Payette looted their homes while there to care for critically ill family members.

The judge said the thefts of $800,000 in valuables, ranging from diamonds and rubies to sterling silver corn holders, showed “premeditation [and] planning” and noted how, as police closed in on her last spring, Payette urged a Beverly Hills pawnbroker to lie about her efforts to sell the goods.

“I do not find this to be a difficult case,” Albracht said, also ordering Payette to pay $400,000 restitution, the estimated value of the items still not recovered after the thefts that occurred from late 1993 into 1995.

Moments before, Payette tearfully addressed the court, saying, “I hurt and disappointed the very people who depended on me.

“I can’t take back the mistakes I made,” added the Massachusetts native, who served as a Navy nurse during Operation Desert Storm, “[but] I know now this will never happen again.”

Though the judge said the hearing was not the proper forum to resolve Payette’s allegations about Duke’s Oct. 28, 1993, death, the continuing fight over the tobacco heiress’ will pervaded the day.

Among those in court were Dr. Charles Kivowitz, a Beverly Hills physician whom Payette accused of overprescribing drugs, and an attorney for Duke’s former butler, Bernard Lafferty, who was named Duke’s executor in her last will.

“I think she’s fairly sentenced,” said Kivowitz, whose attorney briefly addressed the court to defend the care given Duke as “exemplary.”

Payette was arrested two months after attorneys challenging Duke’s will produced her affidavit on Duke’s death. It prompted a New York court to order an investigation that resulted temporarily in the removal of Lafferty and the United States Trust Co. of New York as co-executors of Duke’s estate. Another probe, by Los Angeles authorities, is still open.

Payette’s defense costs are being paid by the main challenger to Duke’s will, New York physician Dr. Harry B. Demopoulos, according to his attorneys.

In October, Payette pleaded guilty to stealing from six patients while working for a home nursing service, including cosmetics luminary Factor, then 90, whom she cared for days after Duke’s death. But Payette has denied stealing prized jewelry from the Duke household, including three pearl and diamond necklaces--insisting that those items were “a gift” from Lafferty designed “to buy me off.”

“Something about the death of Doris Duke caused Tammy this real stress . . . her world caved in,” said one of her lawyers, Curt Livesay. “Boom . . . she starts stealing.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Ralph Plummer suggested that the stealing began before Duke’s death, belittling the notion that Payette got the heiress’ jewels as a gift. Those items alone are worth $400,000, he said, and Payette began trying to sell them off two weeks before Duke died.

The prosecutor said the nurse used the proceeds to pay $28,000 cash for a car, take vacations and buy furniture.

“I’m not a psychiatrist, but I don’t believe people go from one day being Miss Goody Two Shoes and the next she’s breaking locks and going into cabinets, prying open stuff [and] taking paintings off the wall,” Plummer said outside court. “It seems to me . . . she was just a plain old thief.”

The hearing began with statements by three victims, including Factor’s business manager, Duny Cashion, who said Payette took watches, vases and other items while caring for his boss.

“Things were missing every other day,” he said, but Payette was not suspected because “she was Florence Nightingale when she walked through the door.”

Police say Payette nearly got away with the thefts because such rich patients often did not notice their losses--or report them.

“A wife whose husband is dying doesn’t think about jewelry,” said another victim, Marilyn Stein. “I wonder if she thought we had too much and she had too little. . . . She stole my faith in people.”

Payette has been in custody since her arrest outside a Rodeo Drive jewelry shop. With credit for time served, she will be eligible for parole in 3 1/2 years.

Among those applauding the jail term was Lafferty, who has called Payette’s allegations fabrications.

“I’m glad we have judges who can see through people that are lying,” he said. “She’s spread a lot of unhappiness and torture to people.”