COURT RELEASES POLICE TRANSCRIPTS IN SLAYING OF TEEN DRUG INFORMANT

SANTA ANA -- The worried mother of a 17-year-old drug informant called Brea
police after his disappearance and was told that the department wasn't
responsible, according to police transcripts cited yesterday by her
attorney.

Cindy MacDonald didn't know at the time that her son Chad was already dead,
allegedly tortured and strangled by methamphetamine dealers. Two people
have been arrested.

Lawyer Lloyd Charton said at a news conference yesterday that the
transcripts of Brea police recordings released by a juvenile court judge
supported Cindy MacDonald's story that police forced Chad to his death. She
maintains they pressed him to snitch on dealers instead of putting him in
rehabilitation after his arrest for methamphetamine possession.

Brea Police Chief William Lentini said some of the juvenile court records
- -- mainly audio tape transcripts -- were released only to the family and
not to police.

"Until we know specifically what has been made public, we have no way of
knowing if we would be in violation of the court order by commenting,"
Lentini said.

He added La Brea police had nothing to do with the death.

The case has touched off debate about using minors for police work.

Cindy MacDonald gave written consent to the undercover work. And police
maintain the boy wasn't working for them when he was killed because a
second drug arrest had already led to his dismissal as an informant.

Chad MacDonald's body was found March 3 after he and a girlfriend visited a
drug house in Norwalk. The girl was beaten, raped and shot. She survived.

Originally arrested Jan. 6, MacDonald made one supervised methamphetamine
buy for Brea police and gave other information on drug dealers, police
records say.

When he was arrested again Feb. 19, Chad told police word was out that he
was a snitch, according to the transcripts.

"I've already been harassed, like majorly," he tells officers. "I been hit
over the head with a glass. My tires have been slashed."

The family had arranged drug rehabilitation outside California, Charton
said. Cindy MacDonald alluded to rehab when speaking with police Lt. Billy
Hutchinson shortly before Chad's body was found, according to the
transcripts.

"When I was brought down to that station I should have picked him (up) and
removed him from (the) state . . . rather than letting him do this," she
says.

"Well, let me tell you something, Cindy," Hutchinson says. "He was mixed up
with these people before the Brea Police Department got involved. So don't
even allude, don't even suggest, that we had something to do with this."

Copyright 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.