Late Suspect’s Wife Rejects Slain Worker’s Life Insurance

The widow of a studio owner suspected of ordering an employee’s murder said in court papers Friday she wants none of the $2.5 million from the victim’s life insurance policy, which named the studio as sole beneficiary.

But the studio now owned by Barbara Dale Allen maintains it should get the proceeds, which have been deposited in an interest-bearing account under the supervision of the Los Angeles Superior Court, according to court papers.

“It goes to her business. There’s no doubt about it. [But] she’s not making a claim to it personally,” said attorney Lawrence H. Nagler, who represents Barbara Allen and the studio she now owns.

Nagler said the studio, Hollywood Recording Services, has many clients and creditors in line for cash. “Hollywood has debts,” he said.

The studio’s general manager, Barry J. Skolnick, 30, was slain Jan. 30 outside its Hollywood offices. Detectives have said Barbara Allen has cooperated with their investigation and Nagler said she is “absolutely” innocent of any wrongdoing.

Coleman Allen, 57, owned the studio and a Huntington Beach finance company until his death April 6 of heart disease. The finance company, Premium Commercial Services Corp., is at the center of several police investigations delving into possible connections with several violent incidents, including the murder of a Fountain Valley flight attendant last year.

Los Angeles police detectives said that before Coleman Allen’s death they were focusing on him as the prime suspect in orchestrating Skolnick’s murder.

Police said tips and financial records suggested he masterminded the shooting, which took place in a parking garage near the Sunset Boulevard studio office.

Los Angeles police have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who shot Skolnick in the head. Police suspect the shooter was a contract killer.

Prudential Insurance Company of America, which wrote Skolnick’s life insurance policy, asked the court last month to decide which of several possible claimants should get the $2.5 million. Among those the company said might lay claim are Skolnick’s widow, Leslie Skolnick, and her two sons, ages 3 and 20 months. The insurance firm also said the studio, Barbara Allen and the estate of Coleman Allen might claim the proceeds. None had filed a claim by April 29, when Prudential filed its request.

The attorney representing Leslie Skolnick was unavailable for comment Friday and a lawyer for Prudential said he did not know if she has filed a claim since April 29. The family could not be reached for comment.

Skolnick had been the owner of Hollywood Recording before Coleman Allen took over in 1994. Skolnick had owed Premium Commercial more than $900,000, according to court documents. The studio bought the life insurance policy on Skolnick, naming itself sole beneficiary. Los Angeles investigators have said the proceeds were the likely motive for the killing.

Nagler said the controversy surrounding Premium Commercial has devastated Barbara Allen and left her employees traumatized.

“This is all so shocking. It just boggles the mind,” Nagler said this week. He described Coleman Allen as an “honorable, good man.”

Premium Commercial is now being investigated for possible links to number of violent crimes, including the slaying last June of flight attendant Jane Carver, killed as she finished a jog near her home in Fountain Valley.

Police suspect Carver was mistakenly killed in a hit aimed at another woman from the same community who had filed a lawsuit charging that Premium Commercial used strong-arm tactics to take her home to cover her husband’s $400,000 debt. The husband, James Wengert, was wounded in April by a gunman who confronted him outside his San Clemente financial research firm.

Orange County authorities have charged two suspected hit men--Leonard Owen Mundy and Paul Gordon Alleyne--in connection with those shootings. Those two men, both owners of small businesses in Los Angeles, were in debt to Premium Commercial and had been seen at the studio, according to state records and Los Angeles police investigators.

Coleman Allen was placed on probation last year after pleading no contest to bashing another borrower with a pipe wrench during a meeting in Signal Hill. Court records show that several Premium Commercial borrowers were directed to purchase life insurance policies that in some cases were several times greater than their debts.