State Hires Private Lawyer for Bryant Family Trial

The state attorney general’s office has hired a private attorney to begin trial preparations against a ring of alleged San Fernando Valley drug dealers and murderers while an appeals court decides who is responsible for prosecuting the case.

Attorney Thomas Beattie, 41, a former Placer County prosecutor who was fired from his last job, will be paid thousands of dollars to prepare for trial against seven alleged members of the Bryant Family accused of slaying four people in Lake View Terrace in 1988, according to the attorney general’s office.

Beattie was hired in the event that the attorney general’s office is forced by the appeals court to prosecute the Bryant crime syndicate, which authorities say has controlled the sale of cocaine in the northeastern Valley for the last decade.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge held that the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office had botched the case so badly that state attorneys needed to take over. The state is appealing the lower court ruling.

Dave Puglia, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, defended the decision to hire Beattie despite his dismissal, saying he is a highly competent lawyer with a history of winning complicated cases. The state’s 275 criminal lawyers are too busy handling other cases to prosecute the Bryant Family, he said.

“We obviously wouldn’t consider anyone who didn’t have the qualifications to handle a major capital case,” Puglia said. “We don’t want to get caught flat-footed if we lose the appeal.”

Beattie worked for 14 years as a prosecutor in Placer County, an area east of Sacramento with 190,000 residents. Beattie said he was fired because of personality conflicts with Dist. Atty. Paul K. Richardson, who was elected in 1990.

Richardson refused to comment on Beattie’s dismissal.

“Tom Beattie is a very talented trial attorney who is very tenacious in the courtroom and very intelligent,” Richardson said.

Mark Berg, president of the Placer County Bar Assn., also had high praise for Beattie.

“He is without doubt the top prosecutor in the county and has been for 14 years,” Berg said.

Beattie’s hourly fee will not exceed what state attorneys earn, which ranges from $16 to $44, Puglia said.

The California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles is expected to decide in the fall on the appropriate prosecution in the case. In the lower court ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith sided with defense attorneys who argued that county prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence and pressured a key witness in the case change her testimony.