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?

Tauzer 'no godfather'

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

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

Chris Hillis

"He was homosexual," said Chris Hillis, interviewed Wednesday at the Lerdo Pre-Trial Facility north of Bakersfield, where he's being held pending a March 10 hearing. "Everyone who worked for Tauzer knew, and if they're trying to sidestep that, they've got their own agendas.

"... At the minimum, he interfered with my parental rights. I always tried to protect my son. I knew he would come back from drug use, and I didn't want him to have the stigma of being a homosexual. But it's hard to protect somebody without exposing somebody. It can handcuff you."

To the surprise of no one who'd been at the crime scene -- "Did Chris do it?" was the question on several investigators' lips that Sunday afternoon -- Hillis was arrested in October. Hillis, a former Bakersfield police officer and district attorney's investigator who'd once called Tauzer his boss, had been to Lance's funeral just a few weeks before the murder.

He has denied involvement in Tauzer's death.

District Attorney Ed Jagels, a close longtime friend and professional associate of Tauzer's, has said the relationship between Lance and the 57-year-old prosecutor was that of protege and "godfather."

Chris Hillis scoffed at that characterization.

"Steve Tauzer was not part of my family," he said. "When Steve Tauzer started getting involved in Lance's life, people were saying, 'Who is this guy?' Then, to call him a 'godfather' ... "

Indeed, new information suggests the relationship ran far deeper, calling into question both Tauzer's behavior and the attendant role of the D.A.'s office.