‘Dead’ Fugitive Sighted Shopping--Case Reopened

Glendale Municipal Court Case GA OO4468 seemed pretty cut and dried, as far as such matters go.

It opened on July 26, 1990, when petty theft charges were filed against Janet Susan Brice, 47, who allegedly took her car from a Glendale auto mechanic without paying the approximately $700 she owed for repairs.

Brice was subsequently taken into custody at a Los Feliz area motel, booked and released on bail. But when she failed to appear for arraignment, an arrest warrant was issued. Authorities said that Brice has used 59 different aliases, and has a long history of arrests for prostitution, drug use and theft.

Then, on Oct. 23, 1991, Judge Joseph DeVanon received a Los Angeles County death certificate stating that Brice had died 10 months earlier.

Case closed.

That is until Aug. 3, 1992, two months after Glendale Police Officer Tania Paneno--who had arrested Brice--spotted the supposedly-dead fugitive shopping in Glendale. After the encounter at Strouds, a bath and linen store, authorities re-examined the death certificate. Paneno and DeVanon realized that it was a forgery.

“Nobody bothered to verify it,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Grodin said of the document. “Who would concoct a phony death certificate for petty (theft) with a prior? People never used to be this desperate.”

Case reopened.

DeVanon has reissued a warrant for the arrest of Brice. And Grodin said he is sending a memo to all branches of the district attorney’s office warning prosecutors to carefully investigate the reported deaths of any criminal defendants with pending cases.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve ever seen one like this,” said Grodin, a veteran prosecutor who heads the district attorney’s Glendale office.

DeVanon said he could not comment because the case is again pending in his courtroom.

But according to court records, the judge did contact Paneno after he received the death certificate to determine if the officer knew, for a fact, that Brice had died. Although Paneno had not been officially notified, she told the judge that she was not surprised because Brice had claimed to be infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, the officer said in statements filed with the court.

“I did not think there was anything unusual,” Paneno wrote.

The death certificate was accompanied by a letter supposedly written by the head clerk at the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office.

Typed on county stationery and directed to DeVanon’s clerk, the letter stated that Brice’s mother “isn’t at all happy about the police showing up at her home several times in the last year to arrest her daughter.”

Glendale Police Sgt. Leif Nicolaisen said investigators have no evidence that Brice’s mother was involved in the scheme.

Shortly after receiving the letter and certificate, DeVanon dismissed the case.

Later, in her report to the court, Paneno said that when she spotted Brice, the fugitive’s hair color and skin tone were slightly different, “so it took me a few seconds to realize it was her.” The officer said Brice looked straight at her, then rushed out of the store. Paneno said she pursued, but was not able to find the fugitive.