Actor Lands Unwanted Role as the Heavy

Actor Danny Kaufman hopes that some day everybody will recognize him. But the 25-year-old said Monday that the recognition he got last week was not what he had in mind.

Employees at a Sherman Oaks restaurant where Kaufman was lunching Friday thought he was a dead ringer for a murder suspect they had recently seen on television’s “America’s Most Wanted,” the Oprah Winfrey talk show and a “wanted” flyer shown in the restaurant by Los Angeles police detectives.

A call was quickly made to the police from Stanley’s, the Ventura Boulevard restaurant. When Kaufman walked out, he and a friend, Wendy Oates of Studio City, were surrounded by a rush of blue uniforms.

About 10 officers, some with guns drawn, moved in and grabbed him. It took Kaufman four hours and a set of fingerprints to convince them that they had the wrong guy.

“It wasn’t the kind of attention I was seeking,” said Kaufman of Santa Monica.

“As soon as I stepped out the door my arms were grabbed and pulled behind me. I was handcuffed in about a second and a half. I didn’t know what was happening. I was scared.”

Fugitive squad Detective Douglas Le Melle said the officers and the employees of the restaurant thought Kaufman was 20-year-old Richard Church, who is wanted for murder in Illinois and is believed to be in Southern California.

Police officers explained the large-scale response to the phone tip by saying Church is considered extremely dangerous. Le Melle said Church is accused of stabbing a former girlfriend, her brother, mother and father in Woodstock, Ill., on Aug. 21, 1988. The mother and father died.

In the last year, the Church case has been aired on “America’s Most Wanted” twice and on Winfrey’s show. Police began looking for Church in Los Angeles after a pickup truck traced to him was found here.

“He didn’t come close to matching the prints, but on looks it was close,” Le Melle said. “That’s why we kept him until we checked the fingerprints.”

A spokesman for “America’s Most Wanted” said Monday that he had never heard of a mistaken identity case being attributed to the show. The producers of Winfrey’s show could not be reached for comment.

After Kaufman’s identity was confirmed, he was taken back to Stanley’s to pick up his car. “He came back and he had bruises around his wrists from the cuffs,” said one of the employees. “I feel really bad about it.”

Oates was detained while Kaufman was being investigated. “It was a nightmare,” she fumed Monday.

Kaufman also sees little humor in the mix-up.

“I am still perplexed about it,” he said. “I don’t know if I should worry about being a continued suspect or if I’ll have this on my record, that I was held for murder. I am taking it seriously now. Maybe I’ll laugh about it later.”