DEBATE FLARES AFTER O.C. TEEN INFORMANT DIES

BREA--The mother says police gave her son this ultimatum: Snitch on drug
dealers or go to jail. It was this relationship that Cindy MacDonald claims
cost her 17-year-old son his life.

Brea police acknowledge they sometimes use youths as informants, but
dispute the mother's account and hope to unseal confidential records this
week to prove their contention.

But whatever the outcome, the little-noticed practice of using underage
police informants has come under increased scrutiny by critics who warn
that it places children too close to the violent drug culture. Most
Southern California law enforcement agencies say they never use minors for
undercover operations, even if internal policy allows it. A few, including
the San Diego Police Department, say they use underage informants only in
rare cases.

The tragedy has underscored the dilemma faced by some police officers who
say they need to rely on young informants to ferret out drug
sales--especially when other kids are involved. But it also ignited a
debate over whether using minors in the war on drugs is ever appropriate.

"It's despicable, it's the exploitation of children," said Jack King of the
Washington-based National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It puts
youngsters at a terrible risk and gives them the wrong idea of what the
American criminal justice system is all about."

The Los Angeles Police Department does not prohibit the use of juveniles
for undercover work, but Cmdr. Dave Kalish, the department's spokesman,
said: "It's been our practice not to use them to buy drugs" because of the
risk and danger involved.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Sayne said his department has a
well-established policy precluding juveniles from being informants. The San
Bernardino Sheriff's Department uses teens as decoys, but only to expose
stores that sell liquor or cigarettes to minors, and only when a deputy is
nearby to monitor transactions. Riverside and San Bernardino police say
they do not use underage informants, in part because there is no shortage
of adults to do the job.

"The concern is, they'd be in harm's way," said Riverside Sgt. Chris
Manning. "The other thing about kids: They're not reliable. Children tend
to exaggerate or embellish."

Nonetheless, some police departments have concluded the use of children to
halt drug trafficking is sometimes warranted, especially in cases where
other juveniles are the suspects. San Diego police, for example, use
juvenile informants in drug cases but only with the written permission of a
parent or guardian and in cases involving "low, low risk," officials said.

"One of the hardest subcultures for law enforcement to penetrate is the
teenage subculture," said San Diego Police Capt. Cheryl Meyers. Without
informants, many crimes would go unsolved, law enforcement officials said.

Some informants are paid. Others cooperate with police in the hope that
they would receive lighter sentences. Children are seldom relied upon to
bust drug dealers because "juvenile informants can't do very much for the
police," said Carl Armbrust, head of the Orange County District Attorney's
Narcotic Enforcement Team. Youths usually lack the contacts and the ability
to deliver a drug kingpin.

Peter Arenella, a professor at UCLA Law School, said that turning a
juvenile into an undercover police informant shows questionable judgment,
"unless [the informant] had very special access to very significant
criminal activity and the police had no other alternative."

An attorney for Cindy MacDonald charged this week that her son, Chad, was
forced into becoming a snitch after police arrested him in January for drug
possession. The mother says the bargain with police--to become an informant
in return for a lenient sentence--took MacDonald into a Norwalk home,
well-known as a place of drug and gang activity.

The Yorba Linda boy's body was found March 3 in an alley in South Los
Angeles. He had been tortured. His girlfriend was raped, shot and left for
dead in the Angeles National Forest, where she was rescued by a passing
motorist.

While the case is still unfolding, law enforcement sources say Brea police
told Orange County prosecutors they had stopped using MacDonald as a snitch
before he turned up dead. Three suspects have been identified in his
killing.

Some attorneys wondered why MacDonald and his mother decided to cooperate
with police instead of accepting the usually light punishment first-time
offenders receive in the juvenile system. That system, said Dean Allen,
supervisor of the Orange County public defender's juvenile division, is
designed to rehabilitate youths. First-time juvenile drug offenders are
usually able to seal their records and sometimes have charges dismissed if
they show a willingness to reform, said Allen. "There's not a whole lot for
[the minor] to gain from working as an informer," Allen said.

Brea police and the Orange County District Attorney's Office would not
discuss the details of the MacDonald case, said Assistant. Dist. Atty. John
D. Conley, an appointed spokesman on the case. But Conley said that in the
wake of the tragedy, prosecutors are considering a written policy
discouraging the use of juvenile informants.

Copyright Los Angeles Times