BAIL DENIED FOR EX-PROSECUTOR CHARGED WITH TIES TO DRUG RING

Courts: The Former Orange County Deputy District Attorney Is Declared A
Flight Risk.

A federal judge has declined to grant bail for a former Orange County
deputy district attorney charged with using his position to supply a
drug-dealing friend with details of police investigations.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Nakazato concluded in a 30-page decision that
Bryan Kazarian is too big a flight risk to be released on bail. The former
prosecutor could face between 24 and 30 years in federal prison if convicted.

Kazarian's parents and other relatives had offered to post $1.6 million in
real estate equity to secure his release pending trial. The prosecutor was
fired last month from his job of more than six years after he was arrested
in connection with a nationwide methamphetamine ring allegedly run by his
friend, John David Ward.

Federal prosecutors have alleged in court documents that Kazarian, 35, told
Ward in a secretly recorded telephone conversation that an informant helped
police arrest one of the members of his drug ring. He also allegedly
disclosed the name of an undercover officer to Ward.

Nakzato said he considered Kazarian's behavior so bizarre that he could not
be trusted if released on bail. He criticized Kazarian for maintaining a
friendship with Ward long after he knew Ward had been convicted of drug
trafficking in Idaho. The judge also noted a federal wiretap conversation
in which Kazarian told Ward he would "go to Cuba" if he ever found himself
in trouble.

"If he is released, there is no reasonable assurance that he will respond
in a normal, rational fashion," the judge wrote.

Defense attorney Brian O'Neill could not be reached for comment.

The decision marked the second time Nakazato had declined to set bail for
Kazarian, who was previously denied bail one day after his June 6 arrest.