CROOKED PROSECUTOR GETS TIME SERVED

Bryan Kazarian assisted biggest methamphetamine ring in O.C. history.

Former Orange County Deputy District Attorney Bryan Kazarian was released
from jail Monday after being sentenced to the two years and nine months he
already has served for tipping a drug kingpin that an informant helped
police make a seizure.

Before the sentencing, Kazarian, 37, vowed, "I want to live the rest of my
life in a spotless fashion."

Kazarian, in a tailored charcoal-color suit and shackles, expressed his
remorse to family, friends and former colleagues.

The courtroom was packed with more than 50 supporters and a handful of his
former co-workers.

Kazarian pleaded guilty in October 1999 to being part of a drug-
trafficking conspiracy. He informed drug dealer John Ward in June 1999 that
police had used an informant to help them seize 106 pounds of ephedrine, a
key ingredient in methamphetamine.

Ward is serving life for running the largest methamphetamine ring in local
history.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Spertus recommended to U.S. District Court
Judge Gary L. Taylor that Kazarian receive a lesser sentence than in
federal sentencing guidelines - from three years and 10 months to four
years and nine months - because the former prosecutor had cooperated in the
Ward investigation.

"This is an unusual case," said Spertus. "We took the position that he
accepted his culpability and worked to help us prosecute John Ward."

Defense lawyer Brian O'Neill described Kazarian, a longtime gang
prosecutor, as dedicated to his family and to law enforcement.

"He is a very good man who did a very dumb and very wrong thing," O'Neill said.

Not everybody was happy with the sentence.

"I hope he's rehabilitated," said Deputy Orange County District Attorney
Jeff Ferguson, who complained in 1998 that Kazarian had written a letter to
a judge in Idaho recommending a light sentence for Ward in an unrelated case.

Ferguson, who did not attend the sentencing, added, "I hope that he can
live a life that will no longer include criminality and betrayal."

Brent Romney, a Western Law School professor, said there were no similar
cases to gauge the relative severity of the sentence.

"For most people in law enforcement, it will seem like he got a light
sentence," said Romney. "Professional police officers and prosecutors
believe that knowingly betraying one's integrity and trust is extremely
serious."

Revealing the existence of an informant could have led to a killing, Romney
added.

Tanya Kazarian gave birth to the couple's second child just a few days
after Kazarian was arrested. She and her father were among those welcoming
the former prosecutor to freedom.

"The judge realized he wasn't the kind of person who would hurt anybody,"
said Kazarian's father-in-law, Yerchen Malbjian of Anaheim. "What's done is
done. Right now, he's going to take a two-or three- week vacation with his
family."

Malbjian drove Kazarian from the courthouse to a family celebration.

Kazarian is fighting efforts by the State Bar to disbar him.