Suspect in plot free on bond

Cult associate will be allowed to seek treatment; 4 others remain jailed

Baltimore Sun/October 23, 2001
By Sheridan Lyons

A 39-year-old Westminster woman posted bond yesterday and was allowed to enter an unspecified treatment program, two days after being charged in a murder plot against her ex-husband allegedly hatched with fellow members of a space-alien cult.

Amy C. Dardick of the 500 block of Scott Drive initially was ordered held without bail Saturday afternoon by a Carroll County District Court commissioner, charged with a single count of conspiring between Aug. 1 and Sept. 27 to commit first-degree murder.

After conferring at the bench yesterday with the prosecuting and defense attorneys, District Judge Marc G. Rasinsky agreed to set bail at $10,000. The judge ordered that Dardick have no contact with her ex-husband, Lewis Dardick, or their three children, unless it is initiated by her ex-husband.

The judge also agreed to allow her to leave Maryland for treatment. Deputy State's Attorney Tracy A. Gilmore and defense attorney James R. Barrett, who represented Dardick at the bail hearing, would not elaborate. A sister of Amy Dardick declined to comment.

Some people familiar with the case said Amy Dardick is likely to seek deprogramming treatment. Amy Dardick is an associate of Scott Caruthers, 56, an author and cyber artist who has been a figure of controversy in recent years, his attorney, Richard L. Gershberg, said this month. He noted articles in The Sun about Caruthers' leadership of a cult that claimed to channel communication through cats with a mother space ship.

Caruthers and three others named as co-conspirators in a separate alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy remained at the county jail yesterday in lieu of $1 million bail each. Besides Caruthers, Caruthers' wife, Dashielle Lashra, 42, and Dulsa Naedek, 42, all of the 500 block of Scott Drive in Westminster, and David Stuart Pearl, 46, of the 100 block of Masters Court are charged with conspiracy to commit murder and with solicitation of murder.

Those four were accused Oct. 3 of targeting a former business associate, David Gable, 51, of Baltimore County and making a down payment with a $6,600 gold bracelet with diamonds and emeralds, and a promise of up to $20 million in stock shares if Gable was killed before an October court date involving the business, according to charging documents.

The supposed hit man, Amir Tabassi, a sometimes bodyguard for the group, instead notified Gable and an attorney, according to those charging documents, and he told the police of a conversation in which Caruthers characterized Dardick and three other targets as "other men [who] had been bothering his family."

Many of the same events were recounted as the basis for Dardick's arrest in her court file.

Regarding Lewis Dardick, Caruthers allegedly provided an envelope with a photograph and personal information, and then voiced "his dislike for Lewis Dardick in the presence of Amy Dardick, Dashielle Lashra and Dulsa Naedek, and makes several defamatory statements about how Lewis Dardick had hurt his family," according to the charging documents.

When Tabassi called this a pity, Caruthers allegedly replied, "It will not be a pity when you drop Dardick."

A Westminster attorney told police that while he was at a dinner at Scott Drive in early August, Caruthers and Pearl said Dardick's ex-husband was a "target" and Dardick nodded in agreement.

Amy Dardick was jailed separately from the two other women during the weekend, officials said.