LOUISVILLE — Mel Ignatow got away with murder.

        Acquitted of killing then-fiancee Brenda Sue Schaefer in a trial that was moved to Kenton County, Mr. Ignatow later admitted his crime after film surfaced showing the September 1988 sexual torture and murder of Ms. Schaefer.

Ignatow

        Mr. Ignatow has never been to prison for the killing. Instead he served five years of an eight-year federal perjury sentence for lying to the FBI and a grand jury investigating the Schaefer case. That was one of the few charges prosecutors said they could bring. The U.S. Constitution prohibits double jeopardy — being tried twice for the same crime.

        In a trial scheduled to begin Tuesday, prosecutors will try to win another perjury conviction against Mr. Ignatow for his testimony at trial in a case against Ms. Schaefer's former boss, Dr. William Spaulding. Mr. Ignatow also faces a charge of being a persistent felon.

        The lurid, twisting case seems almost the stuff of a cheap thriller.

        After Ms. Schaefer disappeared, Dr. Spaulding threatened to kill Mr. Ignatow unless he revealed her whereabouts. Mr. Ignatow filed charges against the doctor and later testified that he had an “absolutely good, loving relationship” with Ms. Schaefer on Sept. 24, 1998, the day he tortured and killed her. Dr. Spaulding was convicted of terroristic threatening and fined $300.

        Mr. Ignatow was acquitted of Ms. Schaefer's murder in December 1991. Less than a year later, the owners of Mr. Ignatow's former house found the incriminating film and some of Ms. Schaefer's jewelry in a heating duct while doing renovations.

        Mr. Ignatow then admitted to the killing, pleaded guilty to federal perjury charges and was sent to prison. He was indicted on the present perjury charge just before his release from a Michigan prison in 1997.

        Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel sought the new indictment after listening to a tape of Mr. Ignatow's testimony in Dr. Spaulding's trial.

        “To hear such blatant statements of love ... when, in hindsight, I knew what was going on ... I was pretty aggravated,” Mr. Stengel said.

        At a hearing in October in Jefferson County Circuit Court, defense attorney Jay Lambert said Mr. Ignatow acknowledges that what he said during the 1989 trial wasn't true.

        But to convict Mr. Ignatow of perjury a second time, prosecutors must prove that what he said was “material” — that is, it could have influenced the trial's outcome. If convicted, Mr. Ignatow faces up to 10 years in prison.

        Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Carol Cobb and Mr. Lambert, a public defender, both declined to comment on the case, citing extensive news coverage.

        The trial has been moved to Franklin County because of concerns over whether an impartial jury could be found.

        In the original trial, a former girlfriend of Mr. Ignatow, Mary Ann Shore, testified that on the evening of Ms. Schaefer's disappearance, Mr. Ignatow took Ms. Schaefer to Ms. Shore's home. Ms. Shore said she took pictures as Mr. Ignatow tied Ms. Schaefer to a coffee table, sexually assaulted her and killed her.

        Jurors, however, were unconvinced of Mr. Ignatow's guilt and acquitted him.

        His lawyers initially tried to block the state from charging Mr. Ignatow again with perjury, arguing that to prove Mr. Ignatow lied during Dr. Spaulding's 1989 trial, prosecutors had to prove he killed Ms. Schaefer, which would violate the double jeopardy protections.

        The Kentucky Supreme Court disagreed, ruling in January that Mr. Ignatow could be tried for lying about his relationship.

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