Death Penalty Sought in Officer’s Slaying

VENTURA —  Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury announced Tuesday that he will seek the death penalty for accused cop killer Daniel Allan Tuffree, who allegedly shot Simi Valley Police Officer Michael F. Clark in August.

Clark, 28, died Aug. 4 during a five-hour shootout and standoff with police at Tuffree’s Simi Valley home. Tuffree’s attorneys have maintained that Clark fired first and that Tuffree returned fire in self-defense.

Prosecutors would not comment on the case Tuesday. But during grand jury hearings last month, prosecutors Peter D. Kossoris and Patricia M. Murphy successfully urged the panel to indict Tuffree on the capital murder charge.

“It is very, very clear that Mr. Tuffree intended to kill Officer Clark,” Murphy told the grand jury on Sept. 21, according to transcripts unsealed Tuesday.

Murphy and Kossoris called 23 witnesses before the grand jury, which indicted Tuffree on the murder charge and one count each of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

The two prosecutors contend that Tuffree, 48, harbored a long-standing grudge against the Simi Valley Police Department after several officers raided his home in 1992 and seized a semiautomatic handgun.

The police had received reports that year that Tuffree had fired the gun at a passing motorist. But when ballistic tests proved inconclusive, Tuffree was not charged with a crime and the gun was later returned to him. Investigators claim that same gun was used to kill Clark.

After Clark’s killing, investigators searched Tuffree’s home and found a 19-page letter addressed to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) detailing his still simmering dissatisfaction with the Police Department over the 1992 incident.

The letter was never mailed. But Murphy argued that it is proof that Tuffree has “a dislike and distrust for [the] Simi Valley [Police Department] that bordered on [the] obsessed,” the grand jury transcripts showed.

According to the transcripts, Tuffree became upset when a local pharmacy refused to renew his Valium prescription. He called his health insurance carrier to complain. Concerned about his demeanor, company representatives called a mental health worker, who was unable to contact Tuffree on the telephone.

The mental health worker in turn called police. Grand jury testimony shows that Tuffree refused to open his door for Clark and two colleagues when they arrived at his house.

Tuffree told investigators during a 3 1/2-hour interrogation immediately after the shooting that Clark fired his gun first. He told investigators that Clark stood in his back yard and yelled through the window at Tuffree to show both hands.

Tuffree placed his hands on a kitchen counter and laid the gun under his left hand, at which point Clark backed up and pointed his weapon at Tuffree, according to the transcripts.

Prosecutors dispute Tuffree’s claim that Clark fired first. But Murphy told the grand jury that even if Clark did fire first, he was justified by Tuffree’s actions. “Officer Clark had the right to fire,” Murphy told the grand jury. “It is not a question of who shot first.”

The grand jury also charged Tuffree with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly shooting at Officer Michael Pierce.

Missing from the indictment were four other charges that prosecutors had originally filed.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office also had charged Tuffree with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly firing at Sgt. Anthony Anzilotti, who also testified at the grand jury hearings.