Coroner Unable to Determine If Scott Was Pointing Gun

A Ventura County coroner’s investigation into the death of wealthy rancher Donald P. Scott is inconclusive on whether Scott was pointing a handgun at sheriff’s deputies when he was fatally shot during a drug raid in October.

The medical examiner’s investigative, autopsy and toxicological reports into the Scott shooting, obtained by The Times, are an important element in an inquiry by the Ventura County district attorney’s office into whether the shooting of the 61-year-old Scott was justified.

The report is also expected to be crucial in determining the eventual outcome of a pending wrongful death lawsuit being assembled by lawyers for Scott’s widow, who will attempt to prove that the fatal shooting was unwarranted.

Because the report is inconclusive about whether Scott’s gun was pointed at deputies or was lowered toward the ground when he was shot, one expert said Wednesday that both sides in the case will be likely to try to use it to justify their positions.

“The coroner can’t tell if Scott’s arm was up or down,” said a forensic expert who requested anonymity. Speaking of the legal team preparing the lawsuit for Scott’s widow, he added: “They can’t either.”

A private autopsy on Scott’s body was performed last month by Ronald Kornblum, a former Los Angeles County coroner, for a Los Angeles law firm headed by attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

When contacted on Wednesday, Kornblum said, “I more or less came to a conclusion” on whether Scott was pointing his gun at the deputies. But Kornblum declined to state what it was.

Kevin J. McGee, the Ventura County chief deputy district attorney, said he expects his office to issue a report on the Scott case at the end of January. The report, he said, “would conclude the criminal case.”

If this occurs, no criminal charges will be filed in the shooting of Scott, McGee said. Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury already has said that based on preliminary findings the shooting appeared justifiable because Scott threatened deputies with a loaded handgun.

However, Bradbury said he would conduct an in-depth review of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department-led drug task force operation.

Scott, owner of the 200-acre Trail’s End Ranch in the Malibu area of Ventura County, was fatally shot Oct. 2.

The task force operation was mounted after aerial surveillance of Scott’s property by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which contended in court papers that the ranch was the site of illegal marijuana plant cultivation.

No marijuana plants were found by the task force, which along with sheriff’s deputies, included elements from the DEA, the National Guard and the National Park Service.

According to the coroner’s investigative report, Scott was fatally shot about 8:40 a.m. Sheriff’s deputies broke down the ranch house’s front door and confronted Scott, who had been asleep, in the doorway of his living room.

Scott was holding a .38-caliber revolver in his right hand over his head, according to a Sheriff’s Department spokesman and Scott’s widow, Frances Plante. When deputies ordered him to put the gun down, he was fatally shot as he lowered his arm.

Two bullets hit Scott while a third slammed into a living room door frame. While two deputies were said to have fired at Scott, the coroner’s report shows that the bullets that actually hit him were fired from a similar angle. A forensic expert said this indicates that they may have been fired by the same deputy.

According to the coroner’s reports, the fatal bullet hit Scott in the right front chest just below the collarbone, pierced his aorta just above the heart and lodged in the left portion of his chest.

A second bullet that might have told investigators the position of Scott’s weapon hit the victim in the right biceps area of his arm and went into the right section of his chest. Since the bullet missed the forearm, it is not possible to tell what position the gun was in, said another forensic expert.

The toxicological analysis showed that Scott had both large amounts of alcohol and diazepam, the generic name for the tranquilizer Valium, in his system.

“Most people would be pretty spacey” with such a combination, a forensic source said.