For the Record (1)

September 4, 1980

Synanon founder Charles Dederich, who pleaded no contest along with two followers to charges they conspired to kill a lawyer by putting a rattlesnake in his mailbox, was placed on five years' probation Wednesday and fined $10,000. As a condition of his probation, the judge also ordered Dederich to "cease any connection" with the drug and alcohol rehabilitation group.