Supervisors Reject Offer From Deputy

A Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy is bracing himself for bankruptcy after the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected an offer he made to pay only a fraction of the money he owes the county.

Deputy Gary Spencer owes the county $50,000 in attorneys’ fees plus interest after losing a libel suit against Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

Spencer had appealed to the board to consider settling for $10,000--money that he had raised with the help of fellow deputies and friends.

His boss, Capt. Bill McSweeney, who had approached Supervisor Frank Schillo with the offer last month, said the decision was a disappointment.

“It appears to me that the county decided to assist the district attorney in some sort of revenge by punishing this highly decorated street cop,” McSweeney said. “I find it very discouraging that a county would push a highly respected policeman into this situation without even allowing him to address” the board.

McSweeney said that Spencer had asked to talk to the board and present his case before the supervisors made their final decision.

The battle is the latest in a long feud that has pitted Ventura County’s top prosecutor against Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and his department’s decision to raid a 200-acre ranch on the border of Ventura County north of Malibu.

During the fruitless 1992 drug raid at the ranch, Spencer shot and killed millionaire Donald P. Scott when Scott came out of his bedroom waving a gun.

Bradbury issued a report clearing Spencer of criminal wrongdoing but criticized to the press the handling of the raid.

Spencer sued Bradbury and four of his top prosecutors in March 1994, accusing them of defamation, libel, slander and violation of his civil rights.

But although Bradbury’s comments were later criticized by Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren as “unsupported and provocative,” the suit was dismissed by the state Court of Appeal. That decision was upheld earlier this year by the California Supreme Court.

Friends said Spencer will likely have to declare bankruptcy because of the action, but county officials said they would proceed in trying to collect the money.