Suit Claims Millionaire Was Murdered by Drug Agents : Raid: Survivors of the Malibu man allege that officers shot him during an illegal search. A sheris spokesman says the shooting was self-defense.

Survivors of a reclusive Malibu millionaire shot to dath in a drug raid last fall filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday, alleging that drug agents murdered Donald P. Scott after faking a marijuana sighting so they could seize his 200-acre ranch.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department used false information to secure a search warrant, then descended on Scott’s isolated Ventura County ranch in a raid that ended when Scott was fatally wounded Oct. 2 after he emerged from his bedroom, according to the suit.

“Scott, who was legally armed . . . was ordered by defendants to lower the gun, and, when he complied, they shot and murdered him,” said the lawsuit filed by lawyers Stephen Yagman and Marion R. Yagman in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

“This adventurism by these law enforcement officials callous, reckless and un-American,” the lawsuit said.

Capt. Larry Waldie, head of the sheriff’s narcotics bureau, said deputies acted in good faith, did not raid the ranch to seize it and shot Scott only in self-defense.

“I do not believe it was an illegal raid in any way, shape or form,” Waldie said. “And I think it is slanderous for (the Yagmans) to make an allegation of murder against a deputy sheriff.”

The deputy who shot Scott, Detective Gary Spencer, was cleared of wrongdoing after an internal investigation and returned to duty. Spencer was named in Monday’s filing.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Scott’s estate, alleges that officers violated Scott’s constitutional rights by conducting an unreasonable seardach of his property, using excessive force against him and depriving him of his right to life, liberty and property.

Scott, 61, the heir to a Europe-based chemicals fortune, was killed about 8:40 a.m on Oct. 2 when Spencer shot him twice after forcibly entering the main house at Trail’s End Ranch. No drugs were found on the property.

The raid was carried out by a 27-person task force led by the Sheriff’s Department and including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Los Angeles Police Department, the National Park Service and the California National Guard.