MALIBU : Scott Lawsuit Again Dismissed

A federal judge has dismissed the fourth version of a lawsuit filed by the estate of Donald Scott, the Ventura County millionaire who was shot to death last fall in a drug raid at his ranch near Malibu.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian threw out the third amended complaint Monday but left room for Scott’s attorney to file a fourth amended complaint within 30 days.

Assistant U.S. Atty. James Sullivan declined to comment on the case Tuesday, and the judge’s order was not available to the public. But Sullivan’s motion to dismiss the third amended complaint argued that Scott’s estate had still failed to outline facts to support its charges of conspiracy and unconstitutional acts by the agents and agencies involved.

Stephen Yagman, attorney for the Scott estate, said Tuesday he will file a fourth amended complaint, but declined to comment on the dismissal.

Scott, the 61-year-old heir to a European chemicals fortune, died Oct. 2, 1992. Early that morning, agents with a search warrant alleging there was marijuana growing on his 200-acre Trail’s End Ranch burst into his house.

Investigators said Scott emerged from his bedroom sleepy and drunk and pointed a pistol at Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Gary R. Spencer, who shot him twice. No drugs were found. The suit by Scott’s estate alleges that the federal and Los Angeles County officers who planned and executed the raid violated Scott’s constitutional rights against unlawful searches and unreasonable force and conspired to seize his ranch through narcotics forfeiture laws.

The third amended complaint repeated the allegations in more extensive detail and included a new allegation that high-ranking federal officials had put undue pressure on law enforcement agencies and officers throughout the United States to engage in illegal searches, such as the Scott case. The only aim of such searches is forfeiture of property to benefit the officers and agencies involved, the suit alleged.