Trial Begins for 2 Ex-Officers in Alleged Plot to Kill Woman

Richard Ford and Robert Von Villas, two former Los Angeles police officers, formulated a “brutal” plan to rape, torture and murder a nude dancer in 1983 to collect a $100,000 life insurance policy, a prosecutor said Monday during opening statements in their long-awaited trial.

But Ford, 46, and Von Villas, 41, were arrested before they could carry out the murder of Joan Loguercio, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert O’Neill told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury.

Ford and Von Villas, former Devonshire Division officers, are also being tried on charges they staged a $210,000 holdup at Schaffer & Sons Jewelers in Northridge Fashion Square in November, 1982.

“The evidence will show that these defendants, police officers at the time, conspired to formulate a brutal plan to rape, drug, torture, sodomize and finally murder Joan Loguercio,” O’Neill said.

“The evidence will show that they made two attempts on her life and were arrested during the second attempt.

“The evidence will show that the motive was money”--that they planned to collect a $100,000 life insurance policy that listed Von Villas as a beneficiary to secure a loan, O’Neill said.

Loguercio, 41, a mother of three who lived in Granada Hills, died in March, 1986, following a two-year battle with cancer.

O’Neill said he intends to introduce at the trial her testimony from the earlier preliminary hearing.

The prosecutor also read for jurors portions of an obscenity-laden transcript of a secretly recorded conversation between Ford and informant Bruce E. Adams made shortly before the second alleged attempt on Loguercio’s life.

On the tape, Ford tells Adams that he is going to make the murder of the part-time nude dancer look like the work of a sex fiend.

“Beat the . . . out of her, ended up . . . killing her and dumped her in a . . . alley,” Ford is heard saying. “So the whole thing is supposed to look like a . . . sex crime.”

In their opening statements, defense attorneys told jurors that their clients are innocent of the charges.

“The truth is, ladies and gentlemen, the taped conversation does not prove that Richard Ford is guilty and cannot prove he is guilty because he is not guilty,” said Ford’s attorney, Richard Lasting.

“Was it a real plan to kill? Was there a specific intent in the mind of Richard Ford to kill Joan Loguercio? I will prove to you there was not.”

Said Von Villas’ attorney, Jack Stone: “I will prove to you that Mr. Von Villas had no motive to kill Joan Loguercio. This is an innocent man. I’m going to prove it to you beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Ford and Von Villas also face possible death sentences in a separate case. The two are charged with murdering Northridge businessman Thomas Weed after being paid $20,000 by the man’s former wife. Weed disappeared from his apartment in February, 1983, and is presumed dead. His body has never been found.

A trial on the murder charge will follow the attempted murder trial. Both cases have been plagued by years of legal delays, preventing them from coming to trial sooner.

In the present trial before Judge Alexander Williams, Ford and Von Villas are charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and attempting to administer drugs to Loguercio.

They are also charged with two counts of attempted murder, three counts of robbery, three counts of false imprisonment and three counts of assault with a firearm.