Powerful gay men. Vulnerable teen-age boys. Murder. For years, some prominent local men who led secret lives were rumored to be protected. Whispers surrounding another important man's death prompt the question: Is there really a conspiracy?

'My crazy dad ...'

By ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff writer
e-mail: rprice@bakersfield.com

Monday January 20, 2003, 03:40:00 PM

Hillis even became a counselor at the Salvation Army's Bakersfield rehab center, and he was there when Lance put in a monthlong, but ultimately unsuccessful, stint.

"I'd buy him a Coke now and then. I gave him a haircut while he was in there," said Hillis, who worked as a barber for about a year after leaving the D.A.'s office.

Lance understood and appreciated the fact that his father had redirected his life to help him, Hillis said.

"Lance and I talked (while he was getting that haircut). He gave me my dues. He said, 'Dad, I know what you're doing.' He loved me."

Hillis thrust himself into his son's troubled life so effectively, Hillis said, that Lance once told a fellow drug addict, apparently with some admiration, "My crazy dad .... He has infiltrated my world!"

Hillis understands that his own life will be laid bare at the murder trial.

Details of his career in law enforcement, his personal life, his links to Tauzer and the disintegration of their relationship -- all will likely come before the jury.

Few dynamics will be as closely examined, however, as that of father and son.

Was Lance harmed by an "abusive childhood," as Tauzer alleged in a January 2002 letter to the court?

Or was it, as Hillis and other family members have said, a close, loving relationship interrupted only by Lance's drug addiction -- and the extra-paternal interference of an assistant district attorney who had far overstepped his bounds?

"Lance really respected his dad," said Kristin Sivesind, a step-cousin to Lance. "But drugs were more important than anything to Lance. And here was this super-hero (Tauzer) with the cash and the cars and letters to get you out of trouble."