Sole Survivor of Gun Battle Described as Informant

The lone survivor of a Northridge gun battle with undercover officers that left three of his companions dead was a Los Angeles police informant and had helped lead authorities to the slain men suspected in a series of armed robberies, according to testimony Thursday in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

But whether that role helped save Michael Rochelle Smith, who is charged with murder and two dozen other felony counts in connection with the Feb. 25 gun battle, remained unexplored. Testimony was to continue today in the preliminary hearing to determine whether Smith should stand trial.

Thursday’s main revelation was that Smith, 24, of Van Nuys, helped lead police to a band of alleged robbers suspected in a series of armed holdups across the San Fernando Valley.

“Michael Smith had knowledge about bar robberies as well as Jack in the Box and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” the lead investigator in the case, LAPD Det. Greg Demirjian, testified.

Smith told police he was worried because his car had been used in a robbery, Demirjian testified.

Smith’s information was passed to the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section, according to court testimony. Members of the controversial SIS unit, which has been the subject of lawsuits and federal investigations stemming from other fatal confrontations, used the information to trail Smith and the others to the ClassRoom bar in Northridge. Then the SIS officers chased them into a nearby neighborhood where two of the men and a woman were shot to death and a bystander was wounded in the ensuing confrontation.

The defendant’s only injury was a bite from a police dog during a neighborhood search.

Civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman, who is representing the wounded bystander Grover Smith in a civil lawsuit against the LAPD, said Thursday’s testimony marked the first time that the LAPD has admitted the involvement of an informant in an SIS operation.

“If he was helping them out and informing for them, it’s rather incredible he would be charged with felony murder,” said Yagman, whose case on behalf of Grover Smith is pending in federal court in Los Angeles.

At the same time, federal authorities are looking into possible criminal civil rights violations during the shootout.

Smith’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender James Michael Coady, said Demirjian’s testimony helped his client by demonstrating that Smith had wanted to sever ties with his slain companions.

But Demirjian made it clear on the witness stand that Smith was also being watched by police.

The detective testified that soon after he passed along Smith’s information to the SIS, the unit assigned 10 detectives to the case and began surveillance of half a dozen people, including Smith.

On Feb. 25, two SIS detectives were tailing Smith and two other men whom the detective identified as Eric Fields and Kurt Deffenbaugh of Van Nuys.

Police later watched as the alleged robbers pulled into an alley behind the bar. According to testimony, officers watched as the three men armed with handguns entered the bar, demanded that patrons hand over their purses and wallets, and then fled out the backdoor. The car ended up in a cul-de-sac, trapped by two police cars.

Fields, the detective said, leaned out of the car pointing a gun. The officers fatally shot the driver, Kim Benton, Deffenbaugh and Fields.