TEEN DIED WORKING FOR COPS, MOM SAYS

Boy allegedly acted as undercover informant

SANTA ANA -- A 17-year-old boy who was tortured and strangled in an alleged
drug den was working undercover for police who had promised he would be
safe, his mother said yesterday.

"The tragic death of Chad MacDonald occurred because he was working as a
police informant," said Lloyd Charton, an attorney for Cindy MacDonald of
Yorba Linda.

"The police didn't keep their word. They wanted more and more and more,"
the attorney said. "They led Cindy to believe he would never be in danger."

The mother was speaking through her attorney because she was too distraught
to appear, Charton said.

Chad MacDonald was working as an informant for the Brea Police Department
when he and his 15-year-old girlfriend went to a known drug hangout in
Norwalk on March 1, Charton contended.

The girl told authorities they were held there for two days, then driven to
Angeles National Forest where the girl was raped, shot and left for dead,
authorities said.

Her boyfriend's body was found March 3 in a South-Central Los Angeles
alley. He was strangled, according to the Orange County Coroner's Office.

Two people have been arrested in the case.

"Chad's desire to please the Police Department led him to the people who
eventually tortured and killed him," Charton said.

Brea police Lt. Mike Messina said yesterday the department would not
comment on Chad's alleged role as an informant and directed all questions
to Police Chief Bill Lentini's office.

Lentini told The Orange County Register that he would neither confirm nor
deny that Chad was an informant. He did confirm that minors are used to
make deals under the supervision of detectives.

But police did not send the boy to the house, he said.

"Regardless what Chad MacDonald was doing, 17 years old is much too young
to pay this kind of price for a string of foolish mistakes," Lentini said.
"But those mistakes weren't ours. They were Chad's."

Copyright 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.