Government doesn't give up its quest to seize property
Vin Suprynowicz
The Donald Scott case isn't as well known as the government
atrocities at Waco and Ruby Ridge. But it should be.
In October of 1992, millionaire recluse Donald Scott and his
bride of two months, Frances Plante Scott, lived in a storybook
wooded valley in the mountains high above Malibu, Calif. Trails
End Ranch is almost completely surrounded by state and federal
park land, and the neighboring government entities had made
numerous attempts to buy out Scott and annex his property.
Frances Scott contends the National Security Agency and NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratories have also had a less-well-known
role in the attempted government land grab -- the ranch sits in
the midst of a government antenna array, perfectly sited to
receive data from the Pacific Missile Test Range, and, "My
husband was the only local resident to testify against the
placement of those antennas."
Stymied in their attempt to buy the Scott ranch, government
officials hit on an alternative plan. Contending an officer had
seen "marijuana plants growing under the trees" during a drug-
seeking overflight, agents from various jurisdictions gathered
quietly outside the locked gate to the ranch in the morning
mists of Oct. 2, 1992. After greedily studying the maps of the
200 acres of prime land they were told they'd be able to grab
under federal asset seizure laws should they find as few as 14
marijuana plants, they cut the chain on the gate with bolt-
cutters and raced a mile up the dirt drive to the ranch,
complete with police dogs.
Frances Scott was in the kitchen, brewing her morning coffee,
when dozens of men in plainclothes and brandishing guns -- no
badges or warrants in evidence -- came swarming in.
Understandably, she screamed for her husband, still asleep
upstairs.
Donald Scott, 63, came hurrying down the stairs, a handgun held
over his head. The officers shouted for him to lower his
weapon. He did. They shot him dead.
Frances Scott contends the photograph of two plainclothes cops
displayed at her web site, www.savetrailsend.org, was taken
mere minutes after her husband's death. The two officers wear
grins of triumph.
Ventura County District Attorney Michael Bradbury, after a six-
month investigation, concluded a voluminous report
(www.savetrailsend.org/report.shtml) by branding the fatal raid
"a land grab by the [L.A.] Sheriffs Office." He confirms the
odd fact that "Two researchers from Jet Propulsion Laboratories
(JPL) in Pasadena" were also present for the so-called drug
raid, and asks in his conclusion, "Did the Los Angeles County
Sheriff obtain the warrant in order to obtain Scott's land? Did
the National Park Service orchestrate the investigation or
killing in order to obtain the land?"
Not a single marijuana seed or stem was ever found: "All they
had to show for their trouble was this body on the living room
floor," reported the Los Angeles Times.
The multiple government agencies settled a wrongful death suit
for $5 million.
One would think that would leave Trails End Ranch securely in
the hands of the widow Scott, who has made it her life's work
to see the government never gets the property. But if one
assumed that, one would not be properly accounting for the
creativity and plain, cussed persistence of today's government
land thieves.
A year after the raid and shooting, the widow Scott had to
stand alongside 15 local firefighters and watch as the main
house, cabins and other outbuildings of Trail's End Ranch
burned to the ground. She says a county firefighter told her
with tears in his eyes that a National Parks spokesman denied
the firemen permission to dig a firebreak, since, "It violates
our rules to disturb the natural beauty of the land."
Many would have expected Mrs. Scott to depart after being
burned out of house and home. Instead, she's spent the past six
years camped out on the property in a teepee. Mrs. Scott's
current problem? The ranch went to Donald Scott's estate, of
which she controls only a minority share, the rest going to his
children by a previous marriage. The IRS appraises the ranch at
$2.4 million, and wants inheritance tax on $1 million of that
sum, at 55 percent.
The attorneys for the children have advised them the ranch
would be hard to market -- the official appraisal describes it
as inaccessible, though Mrs. Scott says the mile-long access
road is still perfectly functional -- and that they'll be
better off selling the property to pay the taxes.
Thus, on Aug. 2, a police SWAT team accompanied by two
helicopters arrived to evict Mrs. Scott.
Out of the $5 million wrongful death settlement, 40 percent
went to the lawyers off the top, while the rest was split six
ways. Once Mrs. Scott paid off her own eight years worth of
legal bills, that left her barely enough to offer a $170,000
down payment to back her $1.95 million bid for the ranch in the
upcoming tax auction, she says.
But now, "The lawyers have kept my $170,000 down payment for
potential damages. ... I won't have a single dollar to take to
this auction, so the National Park Service will be the only
party to place a bid," Mrs. Scott told me last week.
The widow Scott has paid out at least another $55,000 to a
series of three backers who agreed to bid on the ranch in her
behalf, but each has been raided or otherwise intimidated by
local police and the FBI, she contends.
No officers were ever charged in Donald Scott's death, of
course. Police are rarely charged with murdering mere
civilians, any more, in this Land of the Free.
Mrs. Scott invites those wishing to "help save Trails End
Ranch" to contribute to the Donald Scott Memorial Fund, P.O.
Box 6755 Malibu, CA 90264, or c/o Bank of America, Point Dume
Branch, 29171 Heather Cliff Road, Malibu, CA 90264, (tel.)
310-456-6296.
Vin Suprynowicz, the Review-Journal's assistant editorial page
editor, is author of "Send in the Waco Killers." His column
appears Sunday.
lvrj.com |
