Spies Aiding Crime Ring, D.A. Charges : Law: Alleged drug kingpins use information from key agencies to intimidate witnesses, official says. Defense lawyer calls the charges ‘a joke.’

Members of a Lake View Terrace-based crime ring have been able to penetrate key law enforcement agencies and obtain confidential information, which they have used to threaten people who might testify against them, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Saturday.

Authorities said the Bryant family crime ring--seven of whose members have been charged in a quadruple murder case about to come to trial--has been able to gain inside information from the district attorney’s office, the Los Angeles Police Department and other agencies to intimidate potential witnesses and hinder investigations.

It was the second time since 1989 that authorities have alleged that the family has penetrated law enforcement agencies.

But in making the broad charges Saturday, a district attorney’s spokeswoman declined to reveal details of the alleged infiltration. Officials of the agencies that allegedly had been infiltrated either could not be reached for comment or had little to say about the matter.

An attorney for one of the Bryant family members facing murder charges said prosecutors have provided them with no evidence to substantiate the allegations.

“It’s a joke, a figment of (their) imagination,” said Steven C. Flanagan, attorney for Tannis Bryant Curry. “None of it has shown up in more than 100,000 pages of (pretrial documents). . . . It’s as if the prosecution and police are obsessed by this case.”

Flanagan accused prosecutors of trying to “poison any potential jury pool . . . to get as much prejudicial information out to the public as possible.”

He said the allegations are a desperate attempt by the prosecution to hold together a case that has been compared in complexity to the McMartin Pre-School molestation case.

The allegations are included in an appeal by prosecutors filed Friday that seeks to overturn a judge’s decision that the defendants be tried separately.

The Bryant family “coordinated their work schedules to coincide with LAPD changes of watch and had . . . people inside most major organizations, including the LAPD, the LADA (district attorney’s office), Franchise Tax Board, Department of Motor Vehicles, Pacific Telephone, etc., allegedly all the way up to congressmen and judges,” according to a brief filed by prosecutors.

As a result of such infiltration, the Bryant family was able to find one male witness and make four attempts to kill him, according to court documents.

“This is why we have a lot of frightened people,” said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. “If our case is spread over seven separate trials I don’t know if our witnesses will be able to last through them.”

It was unclear on what evidence authorities based their allegations or who is investigating the charges. Gibbons said investigations into the matter are continuing but declined to specify which agencies are involved. She confirmed accounts that prosecutors and support staff within the district attorney’s office are being investigated.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, reached at home Saturday, said his office is not investigating possible confidential leaks and declined further discussion of the allegations.

The lead prosecutor in the murder case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Maurizi, refused to comment Saturday, and no one from the Franchise Tax Board, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Pacific Telephone or the Police Department could be reached for comment.

Neither Gibbons nor Reiner would divulge details of the alleged infiltration, such as specific links between the family and the agencies or the source of their suspicions. Gibbons acknowledged that no criminal charges have been filed in connection with the allegations.

Police say the Bryant family has operated a drug-dealing empire for more than a decade in the San Fernando Valley and has raked in receipts of more than $100,000 a week.

On Aug. 28, 1988, four people, including 2-year-old Chemise English, her 23-year-old mother, Loretha English, and two friends, Andre Louis Armstrong, 31, and James Brown, 43, were killed in Lake View Terrace.

Police say the killings were part of a plan to eliminate competition for the lucrative Valley cocaine trade. Armstrong, a former associate of the family who had recently been released from jail, was reputed to be trying to take over the drug ring.

Charged in the slayings and potentially facing the death penalty are accused ringleader Stanley Bryant, 34; Jon P. Settle, 31; Donald Smith, 33, and LeRoy Wheeler, 23. Curry, 30, Antonio Johnson, 33, and Nash Newbill, 56, are charged with murder and drug conspiracy and could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Two other alleged Bryant family members face drug conspiracy charges. Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to start Tuesday.

In the appeal filed Friday, prosecutors asked for an emergency stay to prevent the start of the trial until they can argue that all of the defendants should be tried together and that murder and drug conspiracy charges should not be separated.

Police contend that not only has the family been able to intimidate witnesses, it has often outmaneuvered law enforcement agencies.

In 1989, police said they had evidence that the family had been able to place agents inside the DMV to produce phony drivers licenses. Authorities also alleged at the time that the family had informants inside the district attorney’s office and other agencies. But no evidence was ever offered to support the allegations.

Times staff writer Sam Enriquez contributed to this story.