CITY AGREES TO $1 MILLION SETTLEMENT IN TORTURE SLAYING OF TEENAGE POLICE
INFORMANT

BREA, Calif. (Associated Press) The city has agreed to a $1 million
settlement for the mother of a teenager who was tortured and killed because
of his undercover work as a police drug ''snitch.''

City Manager Tim O'Donnell said the settlement would be paid by an
insurance company to Cindy MacDonald, mother of 17-year-old Chad MacDonald.

"This is a number that will send out a message to all police departments
that they can't use juveniles as drug informants," MacDonald's attorney,
Lloyd Charton, said of the settlement.

Using Chad as an informant violated Orange County guidelines. A state law
passed since Chad's 1998 death limits the use of teenage drug informants.

MacDonald said Brea police had convinced her and Chad that he would have to
be an informant in order to stay out of jail after his arrest for selling
drugs in Yorba Linda. Brea police serve Yorba Linda.

Police said MacDonald's work as an informant had ended by the time he was
murdered by three drug dealers, who also raped and shot his girlfriend. She
survived.

The people responsible for Chad's death have been sentenced to life in
prison, O'Donnell said.