DRUG-RING SUSPECT WAS SCRUTINIZED FOR A DECADE

Crime: The man who befriended jailed prosecutor Bryan Kazarian had long
aroused suspicion with his luxurious lifestyle.

The allegations started when he was an 18-year-old Villa Park High
School dropout flashing wads of money and driving fancy cars.

At least six informants told Orange police beginning in 1989 that John
David Ward was a cocaine dealer who had threatened to kill anyone who
snitched him off to the police,court documents show.

One caller said Ward peddled cocaine to kids near his family's home on
Jib Street,and that his parents,Steven and Francis Ward,knew.

The call would mark the beginning of a decade of frustration for law
enforcement-and,for Ward,a period of wealth,fast cars,luxury homes and
expensive vacations.

This week,Ward was arrested in connection with a nationwide
methamphetamine distribution ring that federal authorities say grossed
$12 million a week.Orange County Deputy District Attorney Bryan
Kazarian,a prosecutor for six years,was also arrested,accused of
giving Ward inside information.

The two were introduced eight years ago by a mutual friend whom
Kazarian met at law school,two years before Kazarian became an Orange
County prosecutor,friends and family said.

It was a friendship Ward coveted. He was overheard on a secretly
recorded call disclosing that he was paying Kazarian to protect his
illegal operation. Kazarian's lawyer, Malcolm Guleserian, said the
pair golfed together, met for lunch, vacationed in Las Vegas.

The friendship lasted even while Ward was under police
investigation.

In 1990, at age 19, Ward was living on his own in Anaheim
Hills.

In June of that year, the 5-foot-7, 140-pound Ward was arrested after
pulling his car next to an undercover Orange police officer, calling
him names referring to his line of work, and challenging him to a
fistfight, according to an affidavit Orange police filed in a request
to search Ward's home.

When Orange police eventually searched Ward's home in 1992, they came
up virtually empty-handed. There was none of the cocaine they'd been
told about, only a little marijuana and a patch that belonged to an
Orange County District Attorney investigator. Ward was dating the
daughter of a district attorney's investigator at the time.

Over the years, Ward turned what had allegedly been a neighborhood
cocaine outfit into a major methamphetamine operation, according to
federal prosecutors. In 1998, Idaho authorities arrested him in
connection with a shipment of cocaine allegedly mailed to two
residents there. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three to nine
years in prison, but was released pending appeal.

A year before the Idaho arrest, Ward moved into an exclusive
neighborhood on Wisteria Lane in Orange. Neighbors would see him
driving new luxury cars like a 1999 Mercedes sport utility vehicle and
wonder where he got the money. His answer: a profitable T-shirt company.

"He said his business was doing extremely well," said Lina Taft, who
lives next door to Ward in a planned community of expensive homes and
private roads. "But he stood out, even for here. We have some very
wealthy people living in this neighborhood, like owners of car
(dealerships), business executives, and they didn't live that lavish a
lifestyle.'

In the two years he lived in the neighborhood, residents said they
spotted a lamborghini, a Ferrari, a Porsche. His garage, they said,
was full of toys, including two Harley-Davidsons.

Neighbors said he enjoyed showing off his new cars to neighborhood
kids.

About a year ago, someone spray-painted the words "Dope Dealer" on
Ward's driveway, said his neighbor June Klabacha.

Neighbors said he would take off on vacation for weeks at a time,
boasting about trips to Costa Rica or Miami. According to federal
court documents filed in support of his arrest, Ward also enjoyed Las
Vegas. He lost more than $2 million gambling there in 1998, IRS agents
estimate.

It was not uncommon for Ward to give friends and relatives expensive
goods. In the 1992 search-warrant affidavit, police noted that Ward's
parents had 11 cars registered in their names, including a 1990 Ford
Mustang that Ward told friends he had purchased for his folks.

Ward's parents were among 12 people arrested in connection with the
drug conspiracy. The arrest of Deputy District Attorney Kazarian was
the most alarming aspect of the case to authorities.

According to federal court documents, Kazarian was cought in a
secretly recorded telephone call telling Ward about an informant's
role in the arrest of one of Ward's friends.

Guleserian said Wednesday that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas set
up his deputy prosecutor for personal reasons. Kazarian believes he
did no wrong, that he was targeted because of a professional dispute
he had with Rackauckas' wife, according to Guleserian.

"He certainly wasn't part of a drug conspiracy by any wild stretch of
the imagination," Guleserian said.

Kazarian contends that he had a professional dispute with Rackauckas'
wife, Deputy District Attorney Kay Anderle, and that he had angered
Rackauckas by remaining neutral during the last election.

Rackauckas declined to comment, noting that his office cooperated with
federal investigators but did not take an active role in the probe.

In the jail, Kanzarian is being held separately from other
inmates.

"At first he was devastated by his arrest," said Guleserian. "Now more
than anything he feels betrayed by his own office."