Officer’s Past Puts His Credibility in Question

Years before he became a Santa Paula police officer, Jeffrey Breier testified under immunity from prosecution about his involvement in the 1986 murder of a member of a West Los Angeles Hare Krishna temple.

Breier “facilitated the murder” by leading the killer, Thomas Drescher, to the victim, Stephen Bryant, and later helped scout out desert locations to bury the body, authorities said. In 1991, Drescher was convicted of Bryant’s murder and sentenced to prison for life.

Two years later, Breier was hired by the Santa Paula Police Department, which had no knowledge of his involvement in the Bryant case. During his five years as a police officer, Breier was called upon to testify in dozens of criminal court cases.

Now, Breier’s past has resurfaced, calling into question his credibility. The Ventura County district attorney’s office earlier this year sent a letter to defense attorneys in 129 cases in which Breier testified to alert them about his role in Bryant’s murder.

The district attorney wanted to notify the 13 defense attorneys about Breier’s past to “let them make their own evaluation,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Schwartz.

In the letter sent out in February, the district attorney’s office wrote: “Breier knew that Drescher wanted to kill Bryant, that Breier facilitated the murder by leading Drescher to Bryant’s location, that Breier had shown Drescher a location to dispose of bodies and that Breier lied to police when confronted with the murder.”

No evidence shows that Breier’s testimony as a police officer has unfairly convicted a defendant, which kept prosecutors from inspecting the files themselves, Schwartz said.

So far only one of the 13 defense lawyers that received the notice has responded, Schwartz said.

Attorney Ernest Bell of Ventura is representing county resident David Lindsay in his federal case against the Santa Paula Police Department, alleging that his client’s civil rights were violated by Breier after a drunk-driving arrest. Breier testified at Lindsay’s trial in 1997.

“The fact that he was involved in the murder . . . the defense would have had a right to know,” Schwartz said. “It’s very unusual, but I don’t think it reflects the caliber of law enforcement in this county.”

Meanwhile, Santa Paula police officials said a thorough background check had been conducted on Breier before he was hired and nothing from his past made investigators suspicious.

“We pulled the file out and went over it to find out how did this happen,” said Police Cmdr. Mark Hanson. “There was some real internal soul searching but nothing showing that we [erred].”

Breier would not have been hired if the department had known about his past, Hanson said.

“Is there something we could have done differently? The answer is yes. But there is a possibility of something like this slipping through the cracks,” Hanson said. “There was something out there that didn’t come to the surface, but I’m not going to say we did a bad job.”

Hanson said Breier was hired after completing a police academy course in Central California. Before that, Hanson said, Breier did private security work in Hawaii after quitting a job with the Hare Krishnas.

Breier, 43, was unavailable for comment, but his wife said he is leading “a completely changed life.”

“What they are trying to do is discredit my husband,” said Raquel Breier. “The only thing this is doing is hurting my children. My husband has gone to school and tried to better his life.”