Documents Reveal Basis for Raid in Which Rancher Died

A search warrant that led to a drug raid and the fatal shooting of millionaire rancher Don Scott was based on aerial surveillance and an informant’s report that his wife “was seen flashing” $100 bills, according to court papers filed Tuesday.

Air surveillance of Scott’s Ventura County ranch in the Malibu area on Sept. 23 by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration revealed about 50 marijuana plants on the spread of more than 200 acres, said documents supporting the request for the warrant.

But when a multi-agency drug task force raided the Trail’s End ranch the morning of Oct. 2, no marijuana was discovered.

Scott, 61, was shot to death by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies when they confronted him in the ranch house living room. According to accounts by law enforcement officials and his wife, Scott entered the room with a gun held over his head.

Ordered to put the gun down, Scott was fatally shot twice in the chest as he lowered his arm.

Scott’s wife of three months, Frances Plante, 38, did not deny that she carried large amounts of cash from time to time. Her husband had a deep distrust of government, she said, and did not want to leave a paper trail by using credit cards.

“Sure, I had cash all the time,” Plante said Tuesday. “Donald called me the last of the Hollywood big spenders. Anytime I needed anything, I’d call Donald’s Swiss bank in New York and have the money wired. But it’s all legal money.”

Scott’s fortune was made largely from his family’s interest in a European-based chemical company.

A search warrant affidavit was signed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigator Gary R. Spencer, who declared in it that he had “arrested over 1,000 persons for narcotics and dangerous drug violations” in the course of his career.

About a year ago, “I received anonymous information that a woman named Frances Plante was seen in the Malibu area driving a silver or gray BMW,” he said in the affidavit.

“Suspicion was aroused when Plante was seen flashing a very large bundle of currency and paying with $100 bills for very small purchases.” The BMW, he said, was traced to Scott.

On Sept. 23, Spencer’s statement said, DEA Agent Charles A. Stowell spotted marijuana cultivation on Scott’s ranch while on a surveillance flight over the Santa Monica Mountains.

In an attached affidavit, Stowell, a DEA agent for 18 years, said, “I am currently recognized as an expert witness in both state and federal court as to the illegal cultivation of marijuana.”

While flying over Scott’s ranch, Stowell, through binoculars, spotted a marijuana cultivation of “approximately 50 plants that he recognized to be marijuana plants,” court papers said.

The plants Stowell saw from the air were “growing around some large trees that were in a grove near a house on the property,” the search warrant papers said.

Spencer said that from Stowell’s report, the plants appeared to be suspended from large trees. A number of ancient oak trees are clustered around the ranch.

Spencer said in a handwritten notation in the search warrant papers that suspending marijuana plants from trees was a method “occasionally used to hide cultivated marijuana from casual aerial detection or infrared photographic detection.”

The search warrant was granted Oct. 1 by Ventura County Municipal Court.

Nick Gutsue, Scott’s lawyer, said the drug officers “were fishing. I’m beginning to suspect this is more about forfeiture money” than anything else.

DEA officials, who participated in the raid, could have seized the property under federal forfeiture laws if marijuana had been discovered. Under the law, the proceeds from the ranch’s sale could have been divided by federal and local law enforcement agencies.

“There are a bunch of cowboys out there running roughshod over everyone,” Gutsue said.

He said sheriff’s deputies did not have to kill Scott. They could have used “a soft takedown using a ruse to get him out of the house,” he said.

Sheriff’s officials say they cannot discuss the case while it is under investigation.

Meanwhile, Gutsue said Tuesday that Scott’s assets have been frozen and that his wife is without funds until emergency relief can be granted by a probate judge.

Lt. Kathryn E. Kemp, chief of the Ventura County sheriff’s major crimes unit, said her agency’s investigation of the fatal shooting was complete and that a report would be forwarded today to the district attorney.

Kemp confirmed a report in The Times that a toxicological test showed that Scott’s blood-alcohol level was 0.13%. The state level for declaring a person legally intoxicated while driving is 0.08%.