Tuffree Harbored Hatred of Police, Jury Told

The day he shot a Simi Valley police officer to death, prosecutors said Monday in opening statements to a Ventura County jury, Daniel Allan Tuffree already hated the police.

Tuffree also had run out of Valium, grown frustrated with his doctors and insurers and loaded his gun with an especially deadly brand of large-caliber bullets when police came to check on his well-being, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Kossoris.

“He was a good shot,” Kossoris said. “He had been to the shooting range a little over a week before.”

And when Officers Michael Clark and Michael Pierce and Sgt. Anthony Anzilotti tried to coax Tuffree outside, the former social studies teacher with a master’s degree in political science began shooting, Kossoris said.

“Officer Clark dropped,” Kossoris told jurors. “He died in a pool of blood on the patio.”

Clark, a former Devonshire Division officer for the LAPD, left behind a young son and a widow--Jenifer Clark--who listened near tears to Kossoris’ opening statement.

Tuffree could face the death penalty. He is charged with murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly shooting at Clark’s colleagues in a gunfight that went on for 20 minutes before police crashed through his wall with an armored vehicle and SWAT officers arrested him.

When Tuffree’s lawyers make their opening statements this morning, they plan to argue that Tuffree shot in self-defense when Clark fired first. And they plan to argue that the police response to a check-the-welfare call was excessive to begin with.

But the jurors left the courtroom for the day with tapes of a police interview ringing in their ears--the sound of Tuffree describing how he aimed at Clark’s abdomen and fired.

The case opened Monday morning--nearly a year after Clark died--with jurors being quizzed by the judge.

Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele asked how many of the 12 jurors and five alternate jurors had heard or read news accounts about the recent slayings of a CHP officer and a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy.

Nearly all said they saw reports on the deaths of California Highway Patrolman Don J. Burt and Ventura County Deputy Peter J. Aguirre Jr., but they assured Steele they would still render a fair verdict. A few admitted seeing Clark’s death noted in other stories, but said they would not be affected by them.

Then Kossoris launched into a 2 1/2-hour statement outlining a case that will take 55 witnesses five weeks to explain.

The case will touch on wounds and bullet paths, Kossoris said, on Valium and states of mind, on standard police procedures and the dramatic SWAT team attempts to save Clark’s life.

And he said jurors might be bused to the crime scene, to look firsthand at Tuffree’s house on Aztec Court.

Kossoris used a scale model of the house to outline his case.

By the time Clark arrived there Aug. 4 and called for backup officers when Tuffree would not answer his door, Tuffree had already placed more than a dozen calls to his doctor, psychiatrist and HMO, Kossoris said.

His Valium prescription had run out because he was using more than prescribed, and he was anxious to get more, Kossoris told jurors.

Finally, an insurance worker phoned a psychiatric caseworker to say that he was worried that Tuffree had been consuming alcohol and Valium for two days and might not be well. The worker tried to call the Ventura County mental health crisis team. But because the team was already handling another emergency, she called police.

Clark knocked on Tuffree’s door, but got no answer, Kossoris said.

“You guys have been here before,” Kossoris said the neighbor will testify. “I wouldn’t press the issue, and if you do, I’d put on a [bulletproof] vest. . . . This guy’s been known to shoot.”

Clark called for backup, and when Anzilotti and Pierce arrived, the three policemen went through a gate to the side yard.

Clark began talking to Tuffree through the kitchen window, hand on his holstered service pistol, trying to get the man to come outside so police could see he was OK, Kossoris said.

He asked repeatedly to see Tuffree’s hands--calmly at first, but then more pointedly as Tuffree refused--until Tuffree laid a gun on the windowsill, his hand atop it, Kossoris said.

Clark’s colleagues will say that he drew his gun and backed away from the house, then the shooting began, Kossoris told jurors.

And Kossoris said witnesses will testify that Clark was hit by two particularly powerful brands of ammunition from Tuffree’s .40-caliber Glock--a Hydra-Shok bullet that struck his elbow, and a Black Talon round that punched through his back and killed him.