Mother Laments Chad’s ‘Last Thing’

In the last few days of her son’s life, Cindy MacDonald was growing increasingly fearful. She had agreed two months earlier to let Chad, 17, act as an informant for the Brea Police Department in exchange for leniency on drug charges. But even though telephone threats had already come to the MacDonald house from people who figured out Chad was an informant, Chad kept telling his mother he needed to do “one last thing” for police.

On March 3, Chad’s body was found in a Los Angeles alley. Law enforcement authorities say the murder was drug-related, but Brea police insist that Chad was no longer working for them when he was killed.

That is a story that Cindy MacDonald cannot fully accept. She knows her son had slipped into the drug scene in the last year of his life but believes his death resulted from the Brea Police Department’s pressure on him to deliver drug suspects. It was his push to do that, she says, that led to his death.

Until Saturday, when she sat for a 90-minute interview in her attorney’s office in Santa Ana, MacDonald hadn’t commented publicly on her son’s drug problems, his involvement with Brea police and his death.

While not denying that Chad veered off into the drug scene, she says: “He was a good kid. If you had a kid like Chad, you’d have 10 kids. He was that good a kid. He just did this [use drugs]. But he didn’t deserve to die because of this, and he didn’t deserve to be an informant because he made a mistake and tried drugs.”

His first couple of efforts for police resulted in threats, she says. “He was extremely fearful toward the end. He got his tires slashed, a bottle broken over his head, someone broke into his car, threats were coming in. He was extremely fearful. But he said nothing seemed good enough for them [the police]. He needed to get one last thing.”

At times speaking haltingly but for the most part maintaining her composure, MacDonald says Chad needed treatment from the justice system, not a deal to be a police snitch.

“When I was brought up, we were taught that police serve and protect. If something goes wrong, run to a police officer. They know what to do, they’ll guide you in the right direction. They certainly didn’t help Chad.

“If it had anything to do with drugs, why wouldn’t they rehabilitate him? Why wasn’t there even an option for that? Why didn’t they say, ‘You have to pay the price and go to rehab?’ Why offer this [being an informant], especially to a child? They’re supposed to guide you. He was a kid. What was it teaching him by saying, Sign this piece of paper and you go tell on other people and let’s show you this side of life. They’re not protecting society by doing that. They’re not protecting him.”

As this case gained notoriety, MacDonald knows many have questioned her decision to sign the authorization to allow Chad to work with police. She says she was a “complete nervous wreck” when police made the offer, telling her Chad would go to jail for a few years if he didn’t help. Besides, she says, police indicated Chad had already “sung like a canary” about drug dealers.

Instead, she says, phone calls from a Brea detective began coming regularly to the house as he and Chad laid groundwork for Chad’s help. Police and MacDonald’s lawyer, Lloyd Charton, dispute how extensive that help became, but Cindy MacDonald says her son’s drug involvement deepened even after he began working with police, either because of the stress of being an informant or from trying to arrange more buys.

She is convinced the so-called “one more thing” was the Norwalk buy that led to his death. Brea police dismiss that, describing the buy as an indication that Chad had gone solo because he couldn’t rein in his drug habit. They say the buy wasn’t authorized, but MacDonald argues that Chad had to visit drug houses to establish trust with potential buyers.

“You can’t go around on Monday and Tuesday looking like a little preppy kid, doing nothing, then on Wednesday at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when they want you to go on their little drug bust, now all of a sudden you put on baggy clothes and go be an informant and walk into a drug house and say you’d like to buy some drugs. They have to trust you.”

Chad’s true intentions may have died with him. Or perhaps they will come out during trials for the three murder suspects now in custody. It wouldn’t even be an issue, MacDonald says, if the police didn’t use youthful informants.

“How long could he have been involved in drugs? He was 17 years old. He wasn’t doing it when he was 16. How much experience could he have had being a drug user or whatever they want to call him? I said 100 times to [the detective working with Chad], ‘This kid is under too much pressure. He sleeps, eats and breathes this. His whole life revolves around doing this for you. You’re putting too much pressure on him.’ ”

MacDonald last week filed a $10-million claim against the Brea department. If the city denies it, the issue could go to trial.

“My intention,” MacDonald says, “is to change the law so they [police departments] can’t use children as informants and that parents are educated and know they don’t have to do this or don’t have to be intimidated by police. . . . Chad was 17 years old. They have officers on that force with 17 years’ experience. What kind of experience can you have at 17? What kind of decisions can you make at 17? I want kids to have some other avenues to go down. There should be more focus on rehabilitation than on using them to do what we pay police officers to do.”

MacDonald says she’ll attend the trial for those accused of killing her son. “Absolutely,” she says. “That’s a part of my son’s life, and I’ll be there for him.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821, by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail at dana.parsons@latimes.com.