Man to Claim Self-Defense in Police Death : Shooting: Simi Valley suspect was not suicidal and slain officer fired first, lawyers say.

Attorneys for Daniel Allen Tuffree said Thursday they will argue that the high school teacher fired in self-defense during a shootout with Simi Valley police last month that left a young officer dead.

What’s more, they contend that police and prosecutors are withholding key information on the case and giving an inaccurate account of the Aug. 4. shooting to the public.

“A code of silence is what we have here,” attorney Richard E. Holly said in an impromptu news conference.

On Wednesday, Tuffree’s attorneys filed a motion arguing that Tuffree was not suicidal when police entered his back yard with their guns drawn and fired on him.

“Mr. Tuffree only fired in response to the shots fired by Officer [Michael] Clark,” the motion stated.

The motion asks that defense attorneys be given free access to police witnesses.

Tuffree appeared briefly in Ventura County Municipal Court on Thursday, but did not enter a plea. Defense attorney Howard J. Asher said Tuffree will plead not guilty Monday to murder and six charges of attempted murder and assault.

If convicted, Tuffree could be sentenced to death for taking the life of the 28-year-old Clark in Simi Valley in what prosecutors allege was a senseless murder. Prosecutors said they have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

But Holly said in the motion that Tuffree, in an interview with police immediately after the shooting, “emphatically repeated that Officer Clark was the first to fire his gun.”

Furthermore, Holly maintains that investigators have consistently released faulty information to the public.

“The media [have] received misleading and inaccurate statements from the Simi Valley Police Department regarding the subject case,” the motion states. “The police spokesmen have repeatedly omitted any reference to deceased Officer Clark’s participation in the gunfire.”

Defense attorneys also contend that prosecutors and police are interfering with their ability to interview witnesses. Holly’s motion asked Judge John E. Dobroth to stop the alleged interference.

“Moreover, the information provided by police [has] omitted other salient details of the officers’ participation, including that they had drawn their guns as they entered Mr. Tuffree’s back yard prior to making verbal contact with him,” the motion alleges.

Holly said prosecutors told him that Clark fired at least 14 shots before succumbing.

Simi Valley police officials did not return telephone calls Thursday. But police have maintained that Tuffree opened fire on Clark first.

Tuffree was a high school social studies teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District.