Deputy D.A. to Retire Next Month

A year after receiving a demotion following a disagreement with her boss over a police-shooting investigation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson has announced plans to retire when she turns 50 next month.

Nelson--a homicide prosecutor until the February, 1992, controversy with Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury--acknowledged Wednesday that her reassignment played a role in the retirement decision.

“It’s a factor, but I can’t tell you how much, I really can’t,” she said. “Just as I have a right to my opinion, Mr. Bradbury has a right to his opinion . . . and he is the boss.”

Bradbury had no comment on the issue, but a spokesman for his office said Nelson’s trial skills will be missed.

“She’s talented, and I think she is looking for a chance to use those talents in some other ways now,” Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee said.

Four and a half months into her investigation of the shooting death of a Malibu millionaire, Nelson was pulled from the case, moved to a smaller office and reassigned to the less-prestigious sex-crimes unit.

Her report cleared Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies of wrongdoing in the death of rancher Donald P. Scott. A report Bradbury released six weeks later concluded that the deputies were on Scott’s property illegally in hopes of seizing the $5-million property.

In retirement, Nelson will receive 18% of her yearly $79,221 salary, or $14,260 a year, county Personnel Director Ronald Komers said.

Nelson is engaged to a psychology instructor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she plans to spend most of her time initially. She also would like to teach criminal justice, write for legal journals and handle some appellate cases.

“I’m really not an ambitious person,” she said. “I see my job as protecting the weak from bullies by using my brain.”