D.A. Releases New Evidence on Fatal Drug Raid

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury released new evidence Wednesday supporting his contention that a drug raid that left a Malibu millionaire dead last fall was prompted partly by authorities’ desire to seize the man’s $5-million ranch.

Bradbury said the two new documents help show that a principal reason the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department led a raid on the ranch of Donald P. Scott was to confiscate the 200-acre property under federal forfeiture laws.

Scott, a 61-year-old recluse, was killed when he allegedly leveled a pistol at a sheriff’s deputy during the Oct. 2 raid on his ranch just across the Ventura County line from Malibu. No drugs were found, and Bradbury concluded earlier this week that the raid was not legally justified.

The new documents, initially given to a federal drug agent at a pre-raid briefing by the Sheriff’s Department, consist of a property appraisal statement of Scott’s Trail’s End Ranch and a parcel map onto which a federal agent scribbled a note about the $800,000 sales price of a nearby 80-acre property, Bradbury said.

“Those documents and the other evidence that we have offered show clearly that forfeiture was a major goal of the (Los Angeles County) Sheriff’s Department,” Bradbury said in an interview.

“We find no reason why law enforcement officers who were investigating suspected narcotics violations would have any interest in the value of the Trail’s End Ranch or the value of property sold in the same area other than if they had a motive to forfeit that property,” he added in a press release.

The documents supplement a 64-page report by Bradbury released Tuesday after a five-month inquiry into Scott’s shooting and the circumstances surrounding the raid on his ranch.

A key finding in that report was that Sheriff’s Deputy Gary R. Spencer used false information to secure the Scott search warrant, then led a multi-agency task force to the isolated ranch hoping to find drugs and to seize the property for the government.

Under federal forfeiture laws, police agencies may seize real estate when a judge rules that the property was used to grow or manufacture drugs or that the property was purchased with the proceeds of drug sales.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Wednesday that the department will not comment on any of Bradbury’s findings until next week, after Sheriff Sherman Block has reviewed five volumes of supporting documents forwarded to him by Bradbury.

But Capt. Larry Waldie, head of the sheriff’s narcotics bureau, said in an interview Tuesday that the Scott raid was not prompted by a desire to seize Scott’s scenic 200-acre mountainside ranch.

“Forfeiture was never the objective in this case,” he said. “Even if it was discussed, that doesn’t mean that was the reason for going in. The same thing could be said in any drug case. Forfeiture is a part of narcotics investigation.”

Bradbury acknowledges in his report that property seizures are a strong tool against drug dealers. But he said Spencer’s desire to seize property led him to fabricate information in an affidavit supporting the Scott search.

The prosecutor said he has sent both newly released documents to Block separately from his report and volume of supporting documents in an effort to emphasize their importance.

“He can’t miss the significance of these two documents,” Bradbury said.