Judge Slams Case Against Suspect in Officer’s Death

An Orange County judge ruled Monday that Garden Grove detectives hunting for the killer of one of their police officers six years ago improperly coerced a witness into giving statements implicating their prime suspect.

In a second ruling, Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan decided that another key prosecution witness was not intimidated into talking to police but that she lacked credibility. Ryan told a Santa Ana courtroom that he “would be hard pressed to believe any word that came out of that lady’s mouth at any time.”

The judge’s unusual commentary on the prosecution’s increasingly fragile case prompted Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick King to ask for an extra day to reconsider whether to proceed with the charges against John J.C. Stephens.

King’s request marks the second time in eight days that the district attorney’s office has publicly questioned the strength of the case against Stephens. The Buena Park man faces murder charges in the death of Officer Howard E. Dallies in March 1993 and an attempted murder count in the shooting of a Santa Ana security guard two months earlier.

Monday’s ruling delivers a powerful setback to prosecutors, who are now prevented from using Patricia McFarland’s coerced statements--some of which implicated Stephens as the killer--if the case ever reaches trial.

The decision also calls into question some of the methods employed by Garden Grove detectives. Defense attorneys have accused them of intimidating possible witnesses and suspects into giving false statements.

During one interrogation, police threatened to arrest one suspect’s mother, according to transcripts filed in court. In another, they threatened to send a woman’s children away to Orangewood Children’s Home. Investigators on a number of occasions also threatened people with jail unless they told the truth.

“I tell you what, with all the lies that you’re telling us right now, yeah, we will take you down,” one detective told John Lucier, a suspect at one time. “And we will take you down for something, and you will go back to the pen.”

Garden Grove Police Capt. Dave Abrecht declined to comment on the judge’s decision or on defense attorneys’ assertions.

Much of the evidence suggesting that McFarland was coerced into implicating Stephens came from the detectives themselves. One, Marty Donohue, wrote in a report last month that two investigators “intimidated and threatened” McFarland.

In interviews with police, McFarland flip-flopped over whether she knew anything that might implicate Stephens. The district attorney’s office hoped to use some of her statements to bolster testimony from another witness suggesting that Stephens had returned home shortly after the shooting and dyed his hair.

But, looking haggard and pausing for long periods before answering questions, McFarland testified under oath last week that she had lied to police when she told them she had seen Stephens return to his girlfriend’s home shortly after the shooting. She said she also lied when she said she had overheard him talk about a shooting and then noticed him change the color of his hair.

She testified that she had been afraid that police would arrest her and scared she might lose her infant twin girls unless she told detectives what she thought they wanted to hear. The judge agreed.

Ryan said that the police went too far in trying to get statements from a woman who, they acknowledged in court, had appeared at the time to be “emotionally unstable.” Police interviewed McFarland--who has cerebral palsy and dyslexia--four times. They raided her home and misled her when they told her she could be charged with murder if she withheld evidence, Ryan added.

“It wouldn’t have to take this much to put her over the edge,” the judge said.

Though Ryan ruled that statements made to police by another witness, Terri Arbogast, can be used by prosecutors, he made it clear that the admitted former heroin addict is an unreliable witness.

At one time, Arbogast told police that she saw Stephens near the scene of the shooting about the time Dallies was killed. She too retracted her story during testimony last week.

“She made a lot of statements--probably all unbelievable,” Ryan said.

Defense attorney Steve Biskar said he intends to ask the judge to rule that police coerced six other witnesses. One transcript from an early investigators’ briefing said that detectives were conducting raids on homes belonging to possible witnesses “to turn heat on the players. Come down hard on them.”

In another interview, a woman insisted that she knew nothing about the location of the murder weapon. “I’m going to send the kids to Orangewood,” Garden Grove Police Investigator Mike Wagner replied, referring to Orange County’s emergency shelter for abused and neglected children.

And as detectives interviewed possible suspect Lucier, who had been heard to brag that he had killed a cop, they demanded that he not mislead them.

Det. John Keely made expletive-laden threats against Lucier’s mother, according to interview transcripts. Keely then told him that police could arrange for Lucier to go back to prison and be housed in the same penitentiary as a gang member who wanted to hurt Lucier.

“We’ll bust you, we’ll make sure that you end up in prison with a couple of people that you supposedly ripped off,” Keely told Lucier.

Last week, King announced that prosecutors had intended to drop all charges against Stephens but recanted after meeting with detectives. Prosecutors are scheduled to announce Wednesday whether they will continue with the case.