LEGAL FILE

Sentencing for a Los Angeles record promoter who admitted to sending cocaine to a Fresno radio station program director in exchange for favorable play has been postponed, an attorney said. U.S. District Judge Pamela Ann Rymer agreed Monday to postpone sentencing for Ralph Tashjian, 41, until Oct. 30. The motion for continuance was submitted Friday by attorney Anthony Brooklier and the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Task Force, which is prosecuting the case, said U.S. Attorney’s spokeswoman Grace Denton. Tashjian, who pleaded guilty in May to three misdemeanor counts involving payola, was the first person convicted under amended 1960 payola statutes, which outlawed the exchange of gifts for radio time.