Investigator Pleads No Contest in Prostitute’s Death

Private investigator Arthur Michael Pascal, handcuffed to a wheelchair and nearly blind from diabetes, pleaded no contest Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter charges in the slaying of a Van Nuys prostitute accused of harassing one of his clients.

Pascal, 56, entered his plea inside the courtroom of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Horan, bringing to an end a case that began almost nine years ago with the shooting death of June Mincher.

Mincher was a 245-pound prostitute with a lavender Rolls Royce who became involved in a telephone relationship with Gregory Alan Cavalli of Beverly Hills, investigators said.

The relationship soured when Cavalli met Mincher in person, and after Cavalli rejected her because of her weight, she began a campaign of harassment against Cavalli that grew so serious that Pascal’s firm was hired to protect the Cavalli family, according to police and court records.

Mincher was gunned down as she walked along Sepulveda Boulevard on May 3, 1984. Cavalli was originally charged with Mincher’s slaying but was acquitted by a jury after a trial in 1985. Pascal was later implicated along with two men he allegedly hired to kill Mincher.

When he is sentenced in November, Pascal faces a maximum term of 11 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. By pleading no contest, Pascal avoided a lengthy trial that both prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed could have taken a severe toll on his already declining health.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sally Lipscomb described the plea agreement as fair, noting Pascal’s serious medical condition and the likelihood of a complex trial.

Defense attorney Joy Wilensky said Pascal maintains his innocence, but described the agreement as necessary given his medical problems.

“Considering Mr. Pascal’s health and the trauma that trials tend to generate, it was an agreement that had to be reached,” Wilensky said. “He accepted it because he realized it probably was the best thing for him and his family.”

Since his arrest in November, 1991, Pascal has suffered from a heart condition, diabetes and kidney problems, Wilensky said. Pascal’s condition began to deteriorate while incarcerated, Wilensky said.

“He has dissipated over the last few years,” Wilensky said. “He really has suffered tremendously.”

Pascal was the owner of a Beverly Hills security firm when he was hired in 1984 by the Cavalli family to shield them from Mincher, who was suspected of harassing Cavalli and his family, court records said.

Authorities previously charged two of Pascal’s employees, William Mentzer and Robert Lowe, in connection with the fatal shooting.

Mentzer, who pleaded guilty in December, 1991, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, admitted shooting Mincher seven times in the head. Mentzer subsequently testified against Lowe, the alleged driver of the getaway car, who was acquitted of murder in February of last year.

Had the Mincher case gone to trial, Mentzer was also expected to testify against Pascal, who was accused of setting Mincher’s slaying into motion. Mincher was shot to death as she walked with acquaintance Christian Pierce, 24, who was also shot but survived.

Authorities uncovered the alleged involvement of Pascal, Mentzer and Lowe in the Mincher slaying during the investigation of the unrelated “Cotton Club” case, the murder of theatrical producer Roy Radin in a dispute over financing of a movie bearing the same name. Lowe and Mentzer were convicted in the Radin slaying and face life imprisonment. Pascal was a prosecution witness in that case.

Mincher, 29, went by the name Raven and had billed herself in local sex-oriented newspapers as a “Sexy Black & Indian Goddess,” investigators learned. They also learned that she had been involved in a long-running dispute with Cavalli, then 24, who answered one of Mincher’s ads in 1983 and began calling her frequently.

After the telephone relationship was months old, investigators said Cavalli went to her West Hollywood apartment and was repulsed when he saw she was overweight and did not match the description provided in her ads.

According to court records, Mincher became angered by the rejection and was suspected of beginning a campaign of harassment against Cavalli, his father Richard Cavalli and his grandmother, Mary Bowles, a partner in the Beverly Hills real estate investment firm of Bowles and Associates. Mincher was suspected of firebombing Greg Cavalli’s car and setting fire to his father’s military surplus store.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Stoner, who has investigated the Mincher case over the last nine years, described Pascal as the middleman who arranged Mincher’s killing.

“We had Bill Mentzer and Bob Lowe on tape talking about their personal involvement,” Stoner said. “Both of them worked for Pascal, who had been hired by the family who was being threatened by Mincher.”

Attorney Mitchell W. Egers, who represents the Cavalli family, said the family has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the case.

“I’ve never seen a finer or more decent family than the Cavalli family,” Egers said. “They were in every way victims of this case and have gone through an ordeal that no family should have to face.”