D.A. Widens Inquiry Into Raid Killing : Probe: Millionaire was shot to death during a drug search of his Malibu area ranch. Early findings indicate shooting was justifiable because he threatened deputies with a loaded gun, official says.

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury plans to widen the investigation into last month’s fatal shooting of rancher Donald P. Scott during a drug task force raid on Scott’s Malibu area ranch.

Preliminary findings from his office’s investigation indicate that the Oct. 2 shooting was justifiable because Scott threatened deputies with a loaded handgun, Bradbury said.

But the release of those findings will be delayed because Bradbury wants more time to investigate the purpose and scope of the morning raid led by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

“I have concerns about the entire operation,” Bradbury said. “I have asked for an additional investigation. I will be personally reviewing all of this material.”

Scott, a 61-year-old reclusive millionaire, lived on his 200-acre Trail’s End Ranch in the Malibu area of Ventura County before two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot him dead in his living room.

Ventura County law enforcement officials are not publicly discussing the task force operation. But they are angry over what some believe was a heavy-handed execution of the raid on Scott’s house and because the Ventura County sheriff was not notified beforehand, even though it took place in Ventura County.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Longo, a friend of Scott, has stirred up the debate by calling the multi-agency drug operation overkill with the aim of forcing Scott to forfeit his property.

“Based upon all the people who were there, it was apparent to me it was not just a normal raid to seize narcotics,” he said in an interview. “It was one in which they wanted to have a forfeiture of the land. You don’t need all those people to execute a search warrant.”

About two dozen officials joined in the task force raid, which was led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and included the National Park Service and a special marijuana eradication unit--Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. CAMP consists of federal and state drug agents and the California National Guard.

Law enforcement officials vehemently deny that forfeiture was an objective of the operation.

“To think that we would go in to seize property insults my personal integrity and the integrity of the department,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Waldie, who is in charge of the agency’s narcotics units. “It’s a slur on us and I’m offended by it.”

David E. Gackenbach, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, whose agency has bought parcels next to Scott’s ranch, also expressed outrage at the suggestion that there may have been an attempt to manipulate federal forfeiture laws to gain control of Scott’s property.

“It’s slanderous to suggest that the park service would use that method to acquire land,” he said.

Under federal forfeiture laws, police agencies and prosecutors may seize real estate when a judge rules that the property was used to grow marijuana or that the property was purchased with the proceeds of drug sales. The government does not have to charge the owner with a crime to take the property.

Last year, state and local officials confiscated 785 marijuana plants in the 150,000-acre Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area that surrounds portions of Scott’s ranch.

But authorities found no marijuana in the Oct. 2 raid that left Scott dead inside his ranch house. Also, a specially trained Los Angeles Police Department dog could not detect any residue from marijuana plants.

When Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies burst into his house, the hard-drinking, cantankerous Scott confronted them with a .38-caliber revolver held over his head, according to deputies and his wife, Frances Plante.

Plante said that when the deputies ordered Scott to put the gun down, he was fatally shot as he lowered his arm. Three rounds were fired by deputies, two hitting Scott, the fatal bullet penetrating his chest and killing him instantly.

One bullet struck Scott’s right arm. Given the trajectory of the bullet, a source said it is possible to show that Scott’s weapon was pointed at the two officers.

“The man was pointing a .38 at them, and they were in fear of their lives,” Waldie said in explaining why his deputies fatally shot Scott.

In a tape recording of a telephone conversation between Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard DeWitt, who was at the shooting scene, and Waldie, DeWitt said:

“I told him to put it down. . . . He had it pointed up in the air originally. . . . As he brought it down, he was kinda pointing toward the deputy and I don’t know which deputy it is right now.”

The Ventura County prosecutor’s preliminary conclusion that the shooting was justified is also based on a firearms analysis that found a mark on a round in the chamber of Scott’s .38-caliber revolver. The mark indicates that Scott squeezed the trigger but that the weapon misfired.

But the analysis cannot determine whether the weapon misfired during the confrontation or before the raid.

The drug raid followed a Sept. 23 reconnaissance flight over Scott’s ranch by a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Sacramento-based Charles A. Stowell, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The agent “saw approximately 50 plants that he recognized to be marijuana plants growing around some large trees that were in a grove near a house on the property,” the affidavit said.