Gardener’s Ex-Employers to Pay Undisclosed Sum : Courts: Settlement is reached in $2-million lawsuit that followed acquittal in child-molestation case.

SANTA ANA —  A protracted legal battle that involved allegations of child molestation, a sex tape and destroyed evidence has ended in a confidential settlement.

Attorneys for Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Hyatt Seligman and his wife, court reporter Robin Seligman, agreed last Friday to pay an undisclosed amount to the family’s former live-in gardener, Rony F. Rubio.

After spending nearly a year in jail, Rubio was acquitted of sexually molesting the Seligman’s then-7-year-old daughter. The girl told police he attacked her after viewing a sexually explicit home video made by Seligman and his wife.

Before the trial could start, Seligman’s wife secretly erased the tape.

“My wife did what any other woman would have done under the circumstances,” said Seligman, who ran for Los Angeles district attorney in 1984. “Instead of pretending we lost it, we were naive and honest about it. We didn’t deprive the defendant of a defense. . . . He was acquitted because of what my wife did to protect her own dignity.”

The 20 minutes of sexual scenes where recorded at the beginning of a tape marked “Superman,” which had been recorded from a television broadcast and stored in an unmarked envelope at the top of a hall closet.

Rubio, a 28-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who had no previous criminal record, shared a bedroom in the Seligman home in Orange with his mother, who worked as the family’s housekeeper.

Thinking it was the “Superman” movie, Rubio told police, he played it. When the sex scenes came on, Rubio said, he saw that the girl was watching it through a crack in the door, whereupon he turned it off and closed the door.

In the criminal case, Rubio’s public defender argued that the daughter had made up the story after secretly watching the tape.

Rubio’s $2-million suit against the Seligmans charged that by destroying the sex tape they caused him to be falsely imprisoned, assaulted in jail and deported. Rubio, who was readmitted to the United States after his acquittal, now works at a South County hotel restaurant.

“We’re very happy,” said Rubio’s attorney, John W. Barton. “I can’t tell you how much my client deserves to put this chapter behind him.”

Seligman said of the agreement, “I’m thankful for my family and my wife and my daughter. We settled the case because we couldn’t find any justice in the justice system itself.”

The terms of the settlement were sealed.

The Seligmans also sued Rubio in Orange County Superior Court. A jury in late June rejected their claim 9 to 3.