On October 2, a "task force" composed of L.A. County sheriff's deputies, DEA agents, the California National Guard, NASA's Jet Propultion Labratory, and U.S. Park Service officers executed a search warrant -- crossing Los Angeles County lines into Ventura County (without notifying Ventura County police) -- on a private estate.
The search warrant was based on information from an informant that marijuana was growing on the 250 acre estate, a piece of land coveted by the government. DEA agents planned to use this to seize the estate, which federal officials had earlier tried to buy to incorporate into its scenic corridor in the Santa Monica Mountains. "But he would never negotiate with government officials, whom he distrusted," according to the Los Angeles Times.
The task force arrived at the estate before 9 a.m.. They crashed through the door and pushed the wife through the kitchen into the living room. She screamed "Don't shoot me! Don't kill me!", apparently awakening her husband, who came downstairs brandishing a gun over his head. According to the wife, the officers told him to lower the gun, and, as he lowered his arm, they shot him to death. They left him lying in a pool of blood on the floor as they searched the premises, finding no trace of marijuana anywhere on the estate.
Later, the lead agent in the case, sheriff's deputy Gary Spencer and his partner John Cater posed for photographs arm-in-am outside Scott's cabin, smiling and triumphant.
When the wife ran to the body, they "hustled her out of the house." Recorded phone conversations show that while the dead or dying man lay in a pool of his own blood, police used the phone to make calls, and answered a call from one of his neighbors, telling the neighbor he was "busy."
Several weeks before the raid -- according to a Malibu Surfside News reporter -- a game warden and a California Coastal Commission employee paid a visit to the the land owners, bringing with them a six-pack of beer. During the visit, they asked for a tour of the Chumash Indian trails on the property, which the he refused because of rattlesnakes. His widow, believes the visit was connected to the investigation leading to the raid - particularly since U.S. Park Service agents -- who had an obvious interest in obtaining the property -- participated in the raid.
Part of the allure of the estate is its repute as an archaeological site of the Chumash Indians -- a fact not missed by the forfeiture squads, who seized old maps and other historical documents relating to the property, during the fatal October 2 raid, according to the wife.
The report of the Ventura County District Attorney, Michael Bradbury, concluded that the police lied to obtain the search warrant, that there had never been any marijuana cultivation on the property, and that the raid was motivated by a desire to forfeit the multi-million dollar ranch. Despite the DA's dramatic conclusions, no officer was ever indicted, or even lightly disciplined for the lies or the killing.