Ventura D.A. Is Sued Over Report on Raid

One year after being criticized by Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury for his role in the shooting death of a Malibu-area millionaire during a drug raid, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has sued Bradbury for defamation.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Deputy Gary Spencer, also accuses Bradbury and four of his staff members of libel, slander, inflicting emotional distress and several civil rights violations.

Spencer is seeking undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of developments since the Oct. 2, 1992 death of Donald P. Scott, 61, heir to a Europe-based chemical fortune.

Scott was shot and killed by Spencer during the raid on Scott’s 200-acre ranch across the Ventura County line from Malibu. No drugs were found, but Scott was armed and had high levels of alcohol and Valium in his body, authorities said.

“The reason why it was filed was to vindicate Gary Spencer’s name,” Spencer’s attorney, Jeff Giordano, said Thursday of the lawsuit. “I think at the end of the day the irony will be that it’s Mike Bradbury, and not Deputy Spencer, who will have lost his moral compass.”

Bradbury repeatedly has referred to Spencer as “a good officer . . . who lost his moral compass,” the lawsuit said.

Bradbury on Thursday refused to comment on the lawsuit. But Noel Klebaum, an assistant counsel for Ventura County, said “many of the allegations in the complaint are simply dead wrong.”

Bradbury’s 64-page report blamed Scott’s death on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and said Spencer may have lied to get the warrant for the search of Scott’s ranch. However, the report said Spencer was justified in shooting Scott because Scott was armed.

Bradbury’s findings angered Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and led to a two-month review of the case by state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.

In November, Lungren issued a report disputing Bradbury’s report and essentially clearing Spencer and other law enforcement officers who participated in the raid of any wrongdoing. Lungren also concluded that Bradbury’s report contained “unsupported and provocative language.”

The suit also accused Bradbury of having a “cozy relationship” with Venice attorney Stephen Yagman, who represents the Scott estate. In a letter written to Bradbury last March, Yagman referred to the Ventura County prosecutor as “Mike.”

“The fact that Mr. Yagman and defendant Bradbury were on a first-name basis and had contact prior to the issuance of defendants’ report speaks to an appearance of impropriety,” the lawsuit said.

Yagman denied the charge.