The Region - News from March 21, 1986

A nude dancer, who testified against two former Los Angeles police officers charged with plotting to kill her and collect a $100,000 insurance policy, has died of pneumonia after a two-year battle with cancer. Joan Loguercio, 41, was to have been a key witness in the trial of Robert A. Von Villas and Richard H. Ford, charged with the contract slaying of a businessman and with conspiring to kill Loguercio. She died March 11 at UCLA Medical Center, authorities said. Ford and Von Villas were arrested in July, 1983, as police broke up what they said was a plot to abduct and kill Loguercio to collect $100,000 on a life insurance policy that listed Von Villas as beneficiary. “I’d certainly prefer she’d be alive and testify, but I don’t know that it’s a setback,” said the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert O’Neill. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to read her previous testimony into the record.” Loguercio had testified twice at preliminary hearings. Trial is expected later this year.