SAGA STARTS WITH EXPIRED CAR TAG, ENDS IN TRAGEDY

Case documents provide details of troubled teen's final months.

BREA-On Jan. 6, Brea police stopped a white Nissan pickup that had an
expired registration tag.

Behind the wheel was Chad MacDonald, 17, whose name had been "floating
around Yorba Linda as being involved with selling narcotics," according to
the officer's report.

MacDonald said he no longer was involved with drugs,the report states, and
then let the officer search the truck.

Inside were 10.99 grams of methamphetamine and a long glass pipe used to
smoke it. MacDonald at first denied the drugs were his but admitted to it
during his booking, police said.

"I'm really sorry for lying to you earlier, but I just froze up," he
reportedly told police. "I will do anything to correct my mistakes."

When asked if he would cooperate with narcotics detectives, police say he
readily agreed.

"Yes, I will give them plenty of information about people involve with
dealing drugs in Yorba Linda," police say he told them.

Lloyd Charton, the lawyer for MacDonald's mother, contends that the
teen-ager's work as an undercover informant led to his torture and
strangulation at the hands of suspected drug dealers. Police insist the
killing had nothing to do with them.

While much about the case remains in dispute, records released Wednesday
fill in some of the blanks in the final two months of the teen-ager's life.

Police say the teen was "extremely eager" to work as an informant and that
his mother, Cindy MacDonald, gave her permission without reservation. In
exchange for his help, police say, they agreed only to send a letter to the
district attorney detailing his level of cooperation.

No promises were made about dropping the drug charges, and MacDonald and
his mother knew he would be terminated as an informant if he were arrested
again, police say.

On Jan.7, police cleared MacDonald's use as an informant with Deputy
District Attorney Carl Armbrust, who heads the narcotics unit. Prosecutors
now say they believed the youth only would provide information and never
knew MacDonald had made an undercover buy.

"If everyone knew the full picture ... I think someone would have tried
discouraging his use as a narcotics buyer," Assistant District Attorney
John Conley said Wednesday.

Records show that on Jan. 15, MacDonald bought eight-tenths of a gram of
methamphetamine from a female he knew well. Officers searched the house the
next day but made no arrests.

MacDonald came through for police again on Jan. 26, when he gave a
detective information about a meth lab in Orange, records show. Police
raided the house three days later and arrested two people.

While police say MacDonald made only the one buy in January, his
involvement with them continued well into the next month, records show.
Brea police Detective James Griffing called the prosecutor handling his
drug case Feb. 17 and asked him to seek a delay in court proceedings,
records show.

"Brea Detective Griffin says (MacDonald) owes him one more bust. He wants
about 30 days for minor to come through for him," Deputy District Attorney
Kal Kaliban noted.

Two days later, MacDonald's pickup was stopped by police again, this time
for following another vehicle too closely. The officer said MacDonald was
jittery and told him he was on his way to get truck parts.

But MacDonald kept changing his story, the officer said, and when asked if
he had any contraband, he pulled out two small containers of meth.

MacDonald insisted he had bought the drugs at the behest of police and
asked the officer to contact the detective. MacDonald spoke by cellular
phone with the detective, then let the patrol officer talk with him.

"(He) said MacDonald was dirty and to go ahead and arrest him," the officer
reported.

Police say the detective ended MacDonald's stint as an informant that day.

But five days later, Cindy MacDonald apparently still believed her son was
working for the police. She called Kaliban and told him Griffin was
"keeping her son involved with drugs" and that it scared her, records show.

Kaliban said he called Griffin and was told that MacDonald had been cut
from the program and that police wanted the drug charges against him
prosecuted.

Brea police say they had no further contact with MacDonald. Two weeks
later, the teen and his girlfriend went to a suspected drug house in
Norwalk, where she was beaten and raped and he was tortured and strangled.

The ensuing controversy has spawned self-examination by all involved.

"This has put everyone on notice of how dangerous it is to use minors,"
Conley said. His office is considering a written policy about the use of
juvenile police informants, which is legal.

Brea Police Chief Bill Lentini said Wednesday that he department regrets
MacDonald's death, but he steadfastly insists that police are not
responsible for it.

"It's difficult to live with the fact that a young person lost their life -
absolutely," he said. "Whatever Mr. Charton thinks, we do care down here
and did care about Chad MacDonald and would not have sent him into that
kind of danger."