Bradbury Testifies in Murder Case : Prosecutors: D.A. tries to keep the judge from dismissing charges against a crematory operator accused of poisoning a rival mortician.

On the verge of dismissing the murder case against mortician David Wayne Sconce, a Ventura County Superior Court judge summoned Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury to testify Wednesday about Los Angeles County prosecutors’ role in the case.

Bradbury, before Judge Frederick A. Jones, said he made the decision to charge Sconce with murder, then swore in two Los Angeles County deputy district attorneys as special prosecutors and turned over all authority in the case to Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.

Bradbury’s testimony is expected to continue this afternoon as prosecutors fight to keep Jones from dismissing their case against Sconce, a 34-year-old Pasadena crematory operator who is accused of using oleander to poison rival mortician Timothy Waters in 1985.

Jones said Friday that he had tentatively decided to dismiss the murder charges, saying that Sconce had been denied due process of law because special prosecutors Harvey Giss and James Rogan should have been supervised by Bradbury, not Reiner.

Sconce’s attorney, Roger J. Diamond, argued that the case should be thrown out on those grounds unless it is transferred to Los Angeles County courts or reassigned to Ventura County prosecutors.

But Bradbury filed a motion Tuesday arguing that Jones’ tentative decision violates the separation of powers between the court and the district attorney’s office.

“The court should consider all relevant evidence before ruling on a motion which asks the court to take the drastic step of dismissing a murder prosecution with special circumstances,” Bradbury’s motion said.

If the charges against Sconce are dismissed by Jones and refiled by Ventura County or Los Angeles County prosecutors, “the taxpayers would be forced to incur substantial costs to put on a second preliminary hearing and the witnesses would be unnecessarily burdened by having to appear at a second probable cause hearing,” the motion said.

Jones disagreed with Bradbury’s argument that the jurist’s order could violate the separation of powers between the prosecutors and the bench.

“The issue is not how the discretion of the district attorney’s office was exercised, but whether it was exercised at all,” said Jones, a former deputy district attorney. “From the people’s point of view, the swearing of Mr. Giss was an act of discretion.”

Under cross-examination by Diamond, Bradbury testified he initially gave all authority in the case to Giss and Rogan with the understanding that they would be supervised by Reiner.

Bradbury, however, testified that he then took back the authority to decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Sconce because it was inappropriate to leave it in the hands of out-of-county prosecutors.

Before Diamond moved to have the charges dropped or the case returned to Los Angeles County, Sconce was scheduled to be tried on a murder charge and a special circumstance of murder by poison and could face the death penalty if convicted.