D.A. Denies Office Pressed for Confession

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury fended off accusations Thursday that his office sent a psychiatrist into Ojai Valley Hospital’s emergency room last summer to press Michael Raymond Johnson to confess to the slaying of Deputy Peter Aguirre Jr.

Defense attorneys have argued that detectives, prosecutors and a psychiatrist improperly pushed Johnson for a statement even after he invoked his right to remain silent and contact a lawyer.

They want Johnson’s alleged confession to Dr. Donald S. Patterson to be kept from jurors in his murder trial coming up in November.

Bradbury also said that Patterson was called in as a matter of routine.

“Our office has a practice in investigating homicides,” Bradbury testified before Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren at an evidence hearing.

“In almost all situations, we have a psychiatrist respond to the [crime] scene and, if he or she is unable to interview a suspect, we have [the doctor] stand by to observe the suspect,” Bradbury testified.

Bradbury said that Johnson--being treated for gunshot wounds suffered in a shootout with deputies after Aguirre’s slaying July 17, 1996--initially refused to make a statement, but held out the possibility to him and others that he might talk later.

Bradbury testified that he stood in the emergency room for about five minutes that night, watching doctors shave Johnson’s chest, anesthetize him and prepare to insert a tube to drain blood from his lungs.

Then, Bradbury testified, he approached Johnson and had this conversation:

“I understand you were advised of your rights to remain silent . . . did you understand everything you were told?” Bradbury had said.

“Yes,” Johnson replied.

“And I understand you do not want to make a statement to us at this time?”

“Yes, I feel a little bit in shock right now,” Johnson replied. “I may want to talk to you later.”

“If you feel you want to talk to us, you should bring that to our attention,” Bradbury recalled he said, in accordance with Miranda law guidelines laid out by the California attorney general’s office.

Bradbury said he then left the room and told one of his investigators that Johnson declined to waive his Miranda rights against self-incrimination but said he might talk later. Later that night, Johnson allegedly admitted his role in Aguirre’s death to Patterson.

Earlier in the hearing, a sheriff’s commander testified that he had briefly forbidden a deputy public defender to visit Johnson.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Bill Wade, head of his department’s major crimes division, said the watch commander on duty told him that Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles had shown up at Ventura County Medical Center to see Johnson the morning after the shooting.

Wade said he ordered her kept out because he thought that Johnson had not specifically asked for an attorney. He said he would have done so with any suspect, because “I just believe it is a legal position to take.”

Wade said he apologized about 90 minutes later and let Briles in upon learning Johnson had asked to see a lawyer.