New Trial Ordered for Man in Super Bowl Scalping Case

A federal appeals court Friday ordered a new trial for H. Daniel Whitman, a former West Hollywood restaurateur convicted of conspiring to kill a government witness in the probe of possible ticket scalping at the 1980 Super Bowl.

Whitman, 54, was sentenced to eight years in prison after he was convicted in Los Angeles federal court in May, 1984, of conspiracy to murder and tampering with and retaliating against the witness, Raymond Cohen, who was not injured.

The government alleged Whitman hired out the murder of Cohen, who had implicated Whitman in a probe by the Internal Revenue Service to determine if alleged ticket-scalping profits were reported to the IRS.

Counterfeiting Charges

Cohen also gave information to the federal Organized Crime Strike Force that led to the indictment on counterfeiting charges of Jack Catain, 55, a Los Angeles businessman linked by authorities to organized crime.

Catain and Whitman both testified late last year before a federal grand jury investigating reports that blocks of Los Angeles Rams tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, were diverted to Southern California ticket agents for large profits.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that U.S. District Judge Francis Whelan was wrong for refusing to allow Whitman’s defense attorneys to rebut testimony that claimed he had sought Cohen’s slaying on Catain’s behalf.