John Newcomer

John Newcomer was the new head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Los Angeles. He advised Marvin Rudnick that Rudnick was under investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility for including MCA in his investigation of Sal Pisello.¹

William Hundley, retained by MCA, discussed the Pisello case with Newcomer and inquired about MCA's status in the investigation. Newcomer responded to MCA 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 nor its executives or employees were targets of that case and its attendant investigation.¹

Marvin Rudnick believed that Newcomer came into the Strike Force with an agenda to obstruct justice. The first draft of 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, Eugene Giaquinto, or Martin Bacow for obstruction of justice, with the prosecution reportedly not going forward because no one at the DOJ in Washington D.C. wanted all the wiretap affidavits in the case to be released.¹