MALIBU : Heirs File Suit Over Death of Recluse in Drug Raid

Survivors of a reclusive Malibu millionaire shot to death in a drug raid last fall have filed a federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit, alleging that drug agents killed Donald P. Scott after conspiring to seize his $5-million ranch.

Led by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, a multi-agency drug task force descended on Scott’s 200-acre ranch early Oct. 2 after using false information to secure a search warrant, according to the suit.

Scott, 61, heir to a chemicals fortune, was killed when a sheriff’s deputy shot him twice after breaking into the main house at his Trail’s End Ranch. No drugs were found on the property.

The lawsuit, the second in the case by Scott’s heirs, was filed on behalf of Scott’s widow, Frances, and his four children.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles Police Department, the city and county of Los Angeles, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Border Patrol, National Park Service and Forest Service and the state National Guard, Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the California Coastal Commission.

Sheriff Sherman Block has said that his preliminary inquiry found that deputies acted in good faith, did not raid the ranch to seize it and shot Scott in self-defense after he aimed a pistol at them.