Family of Slain Record Executive Can Sue Lender

SANTA MONICA —  A judge cleared the way Monday for the family of a slain recording studio executive to sue his onetime employer--a Huntington Beach finance company president suspected of plotting the killing--and argue their claim to $2.5 million in life insurance now earmarked for the studio.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David B. Finkel ruled that relatives of Barry Joel Skolnick would not be violating an earlier court order if they filed a wrongful-death suit against the people suspected of orchestrating Skolnick’s shooting death.

Skolnick was shot to death Jan. 30 in the Sunset Boulevard parking garage of Hollywood Recording Services, a business that was owned by the late Coleman Allen, also the owner of Premium Commercial Services Corp. in Huntington Beach.

Police say Allen, who died last month of natural causes, masterminded Skolnick’s slaying to enrich his studio, which was the sole beneficiary of the policy sold last year by the Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Investigators also have found links between Premium Commercial and a growing list of other violent crimes, including the June slaying of a Fountain Valley airline attendant.

At Prudential’s request, Finkel ordered on May 1 that the proceeds from the company’s policy on 30-year-old Skolnick be put in an interest-bearing account until the rightful claimant can be determined.

Under California law, no one culpable in a murder can benefit from a life insurance policy on the victim.

Finkel also had ordered that any claims to the $2.5 million had to come through his court, preventing involved parties from filing separate suits in other courts. He ruled Monday, however, that a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the Skolnick family would not fall under that ban.

Mark D. Apelian, a Calabasas attorney for Skolnick’s widow, two sons and parents greeted the ruling with relief.

“This is good news for the family today,” he said “This is what we hoped for and expected.”

Apelian said he expects the wrongful-death suit against the estate of Coleman Allen to be filed within the next month. He said there is a possibility Finkel will opt to consolidate the case with the legal battle over the policy money.

Hollywood Recording is now controlled by Barbara Dale Allen, Coleman Allen’s widow. Through court documents, she said Friday that she would not make a personal bid for the $2.5-million payout, but her studio would be seeking the money.

Her attorney said the policy proceeds would help the studio handle a long line of creditors and clients.

*

Los Angeles Police Department detectives say they were closing in on Coleman Allen as the prime suspect in the Skolnick slaying when the 57-year-old businessman succumbed to his heart ailments on April 6.

LAPD Det. Rick Jackson, who attended Monday’s court hearing, said he was “dumbstruck” by the abrupt loss of the investigation’s prime suspect. For the grieving Skolnick family, the twist has made an impossible situation worse.

“They are in shock and it seems like it’s just one thing after another,” Apelian said. “Barry Skolnick had two small sons, a wife, a family--this has been a horrifying experience for all of them.”

Apelian predicted the family would be successful in blocking the studio’s bid to collect the insurance money.

“We feel there is more than enough evidence to show that Coleman Allen was the mastermind behind the hit on Barry Skolnick,” Apelian said.

Police will not detail the evidence they have pointing to Coleman Allen.

They do say, however, that there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by any current employee or official at Hollywood Recording or Premium Commercial. Barbara Allen has also cooperated with the investigations, detectives said.

Two Los Angeles businessmen in debt to the Premium Commercial are in custody at Orange County Jail and charged with being the triggermen in two separate shootings.

Leonard Owen Mundy is charged with the murder of Jane Carver in Fountain Valley, a killing police say was a bungled contract killing. Detectives say the intended target was another local woman who had days earlier sued Premium Commercial claiming the firm used strong-arm tactics to take over her home to cover her husband’s $400,000 debt.

The husband, James Wengart, was shot in the face in April. Paul Gordon Alleyne, described by police as Mundy’s best friend, is charged with that attempted murder. Both Mundy and Alleyne also visited the offices of Hollywood Recording, detectives said.

*

Coleman Allen also had a run-in with the law. He was placed on probation last year for ambushing a Signal Hill borrower, beating him with a pipe wrench and attempting to strangle him.

That victim, Sendip Sengupta, was among Premium Commercial borrowers who told police they were instructed to buy life insurance policies far larger than their debts and naming Premium Commercial as sole beneficiary.