Police Lure Doctor for Questioning

Dozens of heavily armed police, FBI agents and hazardous materials experts swarmed a quiet neighborhood Friday to question a surgeon in connection with the attempted murder of an Irvine businessman, marking another twist in the bizarre case.

After two days of surveillance, police used a ruse to lure the 69-year-old doctor out of his house: They bumped a dump truck into his parked motor home.

The elaborate maneuver came a month after a masked gunman tried to kill James Patrick Riley, chief executive of Biofem Inc., in front of the firm’s Irvine Spectrum office.

Riley’s business partner, Dr. Larry C. Ford, subsequently committed suicide after detectives searched his home. Police later evacuated more than 200 of Ford’s neighbors for several days while they unearthed a cache of weapons, explosives and suspicious substances.

Detectives said Friday that they questioned surgeon Jerry D. Nilsson, a longtime friend of Ford’s, about the plot to kill Riley and that he was cooperative. Police said they had ruled out the possibility that he was the gunman.

Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato said investigators obtained a search warrant for Nilsson’s home based on information they had collected. They will not arrest him unless they find incriminating evidence, Allevato said.

As police sharp-shooters perched atop a nearby church and a small army of SWAT officers stood by, detectives handcuffed Nilsson and took him away for questioning. Hazardous materials crews and the bomb squad spent the next five hours checking the house.

Authorities also went through a house in Orange occupied by a friend of Nilsson’s in search of what Allevato said were business records. Detectives removed boxes of papers from the garage of that home.

So far, prosecutors have charged a Los Angeles businessman with driving a van that picked up the gunman after Riley was shot. But the unidentified person who fired the shots remains at large.

“Until we get the shooter,” Allevato said, “it’s going to get a lot wackier.”

Officers had been staking out the house that Nilsson shares with a woman and her three children, waiting until he was alone in order to avoid a possible standoff.

Given the discovery of explosives and weapons at Ford’s home, police said they were concerned that Nilsson might also have such items.

No weapons or dangerous materials were found at the house Friday, but the search is scheduled to continue today.

Friends described Nilsson as an avid gun collector and big-game hunter who made frequent safari trips to Africa. He and Ford had been friends for years, sharing a love of medicine and Africa. The two men would hang out at work and chat with each other, said Dr. John Magrann, an Anaheim general practitioner.

Nilsson, a general surgeon, lost his license Monday after the Medical Board of California acted on “gross negligence” allegations against him. Nilsson never responded to the claims.

In a 10-page complaint, prosecutors charged that Nilsson sexually molested one patient and conducted an improper affair with another for more than a decade.

One of the patients said Nilsson began a 16-year affair with her when she was a 14-year-old patient, according to the complaint. A 20-year-old patient, the complaint said, accused Nilsson of drugging and sexually assaulting her four years ago when she visited him complaining of a fever.

Staff writers H.G. Reza and Willoughby Mariano contributed to this story.