---
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
summary: Head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Los Angeles who advised investigator
  Marvin Rudnick that he was under investigation for including MCA in his organized
  crime probe.
tags:
- Person
- LawEnforcement
---

[John Newcomer](/people/john-newcomer/) was the new head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Los Angeles. He advised [Marvin Rudnick](/people/marvin-rudnick/) that Rudnick was under investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility for including [MCA](/organizations/music-corporation-of-america/) in his investigation of [Sal Pisello](/people/sal-pisello/).[^1]

[William Hundley](/people/william-hundley/), retained by [MCA](/organizations/music-corporation-of-america/), discussed the Pisello case with Newcomer and inquired about [MCA](/organizations/music-corporation-of-america/)'s status in the investigation. Newcomer responded to [MCA](/organizations/music-corporation-of-america/) that the allegations against Rudnick were a cause of great concern and that steps were being taken to ensure only factually accurate statements appeared in pleadings and oral arguments. He concluded by stating that neither [MCA](/organizations/music-corporation-of-america/) nor its executives or employees were targets of that case and its attendant investigation.[^1]

[Marvin Rudnick](/people/marvin-rudnick/) believed that Newcomer came into the Strike Force with an agenda to obstruct justice. The first draft of [Richard Stavin](/people/richard-stavin/)'s prosecution memorandum was given to Newcomer, and Stavin's investigation was unofficially shut down around January 1989. No indictment was ever issued against [John St. John](/people/john-st-john/), [Eugene Giaquinto](/people/eugene-giaquinto/), or [Martin Bacow](/people/martin-bacow/) for obstruction of justice, with the prosecution reportedly not going forward because no one at the [DOJ](/organizations/department-of-justice/) in Washington D.C. wanted all the wiretap affidavits in the case to be released.[^1]

---

[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.