An award-winning big game hunter who founded the Greensburg-based Three Rivers Dental Group is tangled in a federal court battle in California with an international safari organization in an attempt to clear his name in a long-running scandal.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California last month rejected a request by Dr. Lawrence P. Rudolph, a local television pitchman for his dental practice, to dismiss a federal invasion-of-privacy lawsuit filed against him by Safari Club International and one of its leaders.

Rudolph, 62, claims 300 big-game species kills and numerous international hunting awards. He was a Safari Club member for about 30 years and from 2009 to 2011 served as president of the sport hunting and wildlife conservation organization with more than 50,000 members and 200 chapters worldwide.

But in 2012, club leaders voted him out and stripped him of his hunting awards over allegations that he used his title to commit adultery.

After Rudolph was expelled, he filed a defamation claim against club officers in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh and later in Casper, Wyo., where the vote to oust him was taken. Both courts dismissed Rudolph's claims against specific club officers, but the litigation in Pittsburgh is proceeding against the club.

In its California lawsuit, the club alleges that Rudolph, its one-time chief communications officer, was negligent and damaged its reputation. The lawsuit seeks unspecified civil damages.

At issue is an allegation by the late John Whipple, a former club president, that Rudolph invited him to a “friendly” lunch at a Los Angeles restaurant on Feb. 20, 2013, secretly videotaped their conversation and posted it on YouTube.

In his unsuccessful effort for dismissal of the invasion-of-privacy complaints, Rudolph's attorneys did not deny he taped the conversation, which remains posted on the social media site as “Safari Club International SCI president tells the truth on video - Rudolph Exonerated!!”

His attorneys maintain the surreptitious recording “was not highly offensive because it took place in a public restaurant amongst adversaries in pending litigation.”

“As Whipple freely discussed sensitive information about pending litigation between himself and Rudolph, Rudolph insists there was no deception, and thus his conduct cannot possibly rise to the level of highly offensive,” his attorneys argued before the court, according to documents.

The taping incident and more than five years of back-and-forth legal battles between Rudolph and the club drew a tongue-in-cheek ruling from the judicial panel in February.

“On appeal, Rudolph seeks to line up the perfect shot, arguing (the claims) must fail because there can be no objectively reasonable expectation of confidentiality in a conversation that occurs in a public place,” the court wrote in its 33-page opinion.

“Rudolph's marksmanship, apparently on target in the tundra, here is wide of the mark,” Judge Richard Seeborg, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California, wrote in a decision affirming prior rulings that the damage lawsuit can move forward.

Attorneys involved in the case — Joseph J. Nardulli, of Irvine, Calif., who represents John Whipple's widow, Joan, and Kenneth M. Argentieri of Duane Morris LLP in Pittsburgh — said the plaintiffs and Rudolph will continue pursuing the issues as they have for nearly four years.

As part of its recent ruling, the court said that despite Whipple's death in 2014, his widow can continue his damage claim.

“Cases sometimes can take on a life of their own,” Nardulli told the Tribune-Review. “In this particular case, there is very good counsel on both sides making compelling arguments, and I feel it will continue to be that way.

“We do see it as a very serious matter, and it will continue to be vigorously pursued,” Nardulli said. He declined to discuss specifics of the case.

Argentieri said the California litigation is “really only at its beginning.”

“This decision was only that the case can move forward on the three remaining claims. Dr. Rudolph to this point has been successful getting four of the original seven claims dismissed and defeating a request for a preliminary injunction (to have the YouTube videos removed),” Argentieri said.

Argentieri said Rudolph is “very hopeful once the case proceeds to trial that the judge will find the claims that remain without merit.”

Both Rudolph and his late wife, Bianca Finizio Rudolph, were accomplished hunters and environmental philanthropists who donated generously to Safari Club-related charities since they joined in the 1980s. Bianca was the former president of the Pittsburgh chapter.

Bianca died Oct. 11 during a safari in Zambia.

An article in the Zambia Daily Mail detailed the accidental shooting death.

“A 57-year-old American tourist has died in the Kafue National Park in Mumbwa after she accidentally shot herself in the chest with a shotgun.

“Central Province commissioner of police Lombe Kamukoshi said in an interview that the incident happened (Oct. 11) around 07:00 hours. ... Kamukoshi said Bianca Rudolph shot herself as she was packing her property.

“Officers rushed to the scene after a report of unnatural death was made that an American woman accidentally shot herself,” he said.

Contacted by the Tribune-Review, Finizio Rudolph's relatives in the South Hills referred inquiries about her death to her husband, who did not respond to repeated phone messages.

“I've tried to respect Dr. Rudolph's privacy in that, but I can only imagine the personal devastation he has been through,” Argentieri said. He declined further comment.

The Pittsburgh chapter recently recognized Finizio Rudolph's conservation work with the club in its quarterly newsletter, Crosshairs, with a photograph asking members to remember her work as chapter leader.

Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2860 or ppeirce@tribweb.com.

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