Lungren Criticizes D.A.’s Report on Fatal Drug Raid

State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has disputed the conclusion of Ventura County’s top prosecutor that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies led a 1992 drug raid so that authorities could seize the $5-million ranch of a reclusive Malibu millionaire.

Ending a two-month review of investigative reports about the death of Donald P. Scott, Lungren essentially cleared deputies of wrongdoing while chastising Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

“I do not agree with several of the key findings and conclusions reached by Dist. Atty. Bradbury,” Lungren said in a Nov. 8 letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block.

Lungren criticized Bradbury for stating that a sheriff’s warrant to search Scott’s secluded ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains became Scott’s “death warrant.”

While Scott’s death was tragic, “it is equally clear that his death was not precipitated by (deputies’) unjustified actions,” Lungren wrote. “Thus, to color what is claimed to be an objective investigative report with such unsupported and provocative language is in my opinion both gratuitous and inappropriate.”

Yet Lungren rejected Block’s request for a formal investigation of Bradbury’s conduct, saying the probe would serve no constructive purpose.

In a statement, the district attorney’s office said it remained confident that its report will “withstand the test of future scrutiny.”

“With all due respect to the attorney general, this office continues to stand by the results of its investigation,” the statement said.

Block, who has blasted Bradbury for “willful distortions of fact” in the case, said Monday that the Lungren letter is “a clear vindication of our entire investigation.

“The only thing that disappoints me is that I wish he would have . . . (investigated) the district attorney’s office to see if there were any improprieties,” he said.

In September, Block asked Lungren to review both Bradbury’s report and Block’s internal investigation and publicly censure the district attorney if Lungren agreed that Bradbury had abused his powers to grab national publicity.

Scott, 61, the heir to a Europe-based chemical fortune, was killed Oct. 2, 1992, during a raid on his 200-acre ranch across the Ventura County line from Malibu. No drugs were found.

Bradbury concluded in March that Sheriff’s Deputy Gary Spencer shot the gun-wielding rancher in self-defense, but that the deputy should not have been on the property in the first place.

Lungren, in his letter to Block, strongly challenges Bradbury’s conclusion that the multi-agency task force that raided Scott’s ranch was motivated partly by the prospect of confiscating valuable real estate.