Deputy D.A. Cleared in ‘Cotton Club’ Case
After a week of testimony and cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. David Conn was exonerated Wednesday of charges that he withheld evidence from the defense during a hearing into the so-called “Cotton Club” murder of New York producer Roy Radin.
Los Angeles Municipal Judge Patti Jo McKay ruled that Conn and three sheriff’s homicide investigators did not try to hide notes, tapes or transcripts of interviews with the prosecution’s star witness, William Rider. Under terms of a court order, Conn must turn over such information to the defense before a witness takes the stand. McKay found “substantial compliance” to the order.
During his testimony June 2, Rider said that two of the defendants--William Molony Mentzer and Alex Lamotta Marti--bragged during a poker game about killing Radin. Defense attorneys charged that Conn deliberately kept his knowledge of that testimony from them.
Radin’s bullet-riddled body was found in a canyon northeast of Los Angeles on June 10, 1983.
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