Cocaine Check Cited in Producer’s Killing

A key prosecution witness testified Tuesday that a reputed drug dealer on trial for allegedly ordering the murder of New York producer Roy Radin sold him bad cocaine and that Radin stopped payment on a check meant to pay for the drugs.

Radin’s personal assistant, Jonathan Lawson, said that Karen (Lainie) Jacobs Greenberger, who has been charged with hiring two men to kill the producer on May 13, 1983, and an associate regularly provided Radin with cocaine when he was in Los Angeles.

On one occasion in early April, 1983, Greenberger delivered cocaine to the Regency Plaza hotel that was “cut very badly” and it caused Radin’s nose to bleed, Lawson testified under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. David Conn.

Lawson said Radin subsequently told him to order payment stopped on a $4,000 check to Greenberger that had been written as payment for the drugs.

Lawson, who had worked as Radin’s assistant since November, 1982, testified at a preliminary hearing for Greenberger, 41, and two alleged hit men, Alex Marti, 27, of Sherman Oaks, and William Mentzer, 39, of Canoga Park.

Prosecutors have said that Greenberger hired Marti and Mentzer to murder Radin, 33, because of a dispute stemming from financing of the movie “The Cotton Club.” Radin’s bullet-riddled body was found in a remote canyon off the Golden State Freeway near Gorman in June, 1983.