ON the morning of October 2, 1992, Donald Scott, a 61-year-old retired millionaire, and his wife, Frances, were asleep in their house at Trail’s End Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, California. At about 8:30 A.M., the Scotts were jolted awake by the sound of a 27-man police task force smashing through the front door of their home. Frances Scott, racing downstairs, was confronted by a group of men with guns drawn. She screamed in panic: “Don’t shoot me! Don’t kill me!” In response, her husband rushed to the top of the stairs, holding a handgun above his head. He was ordered to lower the gun. As he obeyed, he was shot to death by Gary Spencer, the Los Angeles County deputy sheriff who led the raid.
Spencer had received what turned out to be a false tip from an informant who said the Scotts were growing marijuana on their ranch. After a five-month investigation of Scott’s death, Ventura County District Attorney Michael Bradbury concluded that police not only lacked evidence of marijuana cultivation but had obtained their search warrant by lying to the judge who signed it.
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