Block Challenges Critical Report on Malibu Ranch Raid

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block on Thursday challenged a report by Ventura County’s top prosecutor that concluded deputies led a drug raid in which a reclusive millionaire was killed so the government could seize the man’s $5-million Malibu ranch.

Block, responding to a highly critical report by Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, said he thinks his department and other law enforcement agencies acted “in good faith” when they raided the ranch of Donald P. Scott on Oct. 2.

“In reading the report, I find little substance to support Bradbury’s inflammatory conclusions,” Block said in a written statement. “What I do find, however, is a lot of conjecture and supposition.”

The sheriff also criticized Bradbury for what Block considers a “complete lack of understanding of the nature of narcotics investigations.” And he condemned as outrageous and “reeking of sensationalism” Bradbury’s description of the sheriff’s search warrant as a death warrant for Scott.

Nonetheless, Block said he has ordered an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the raid to see if department policies were violated.

Bradbury declined to comment on Block’s statement except to commend the sheriff for reopening his inquiry into the Scott case.

Bradbury, concluding a five-month inquiry, found last week that the raid was not legally justified because the search warrant was invalid. And he blamed Block’s department for the rancher’s death.

“This search warrant became Donald Scott’s death warrant,” Bradbury said. “This guy should not be dead.”

Bradbury also found that Sheriff’s Deputy Gary R. Spencer--the lead investigator in the case--lied in a search warrant affidavit and that a federal drug agent could not have seen marijuana plants without binoculars from 1,000 feet above Scott’s ranch as he had claimed.

Scott, 61, the heir to a Europe-based chemicals fortune, was killed during an early morning raid on his isolated, 200-acre ranch across the Ventura County line from Malibu.

No drugs were found. And, although Bradbury concluded that Spencer shot the gun-wielding Scott in self-defense, the prosecutor added that the deputy should not have been on the ranch in the first place.

Block’s response Thursday lacked detail, but the sheriff challenged Bradbury’s assertion that a main reason for the raid was to seize the ranch.

“A consideration of possible asset forfeiture is a common factor in narcotics investigations today and is a subject routinely discussed by investigators,” he said.

But Block said his department’s priorities in drug raids are “clearly displayed on the walls of our Narcotics Bureau: 1) crooks in jail, 2) powder on the table, 3) asset seizure.”

The sheriff also attempted to refute the logic of Bradbury’s conclusion that Spencer led a multi-agency task force to Scott’s ranch hoping to find drugs and seize the property.

If Bradbury believes that deputies raided the ranch to seize it, then the district attorney must also acknowledge that the officers expected to find enough drugs to justify the seizure, Block said.

In his report, Bradbury said he thinks marijuana was never spotted on the Scott ranch even though U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Charles Stowell maintains that he is certain of the sighting.

Spencer thought he might find other drugs because the deputy knew that Scott’s wife, Frances Plante Scott, 39, had been involved in other drug investigations, Bradbury said.