A judge declined to sign an order permitting Los Angeles police to release for sale to a licensed firearms dealer about 850 weapons and 6 1/2 tons of ammunition once owned by a con man who claimed to have ties to well-known politicians.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan said in a written ruling Tuesday that attorneys involved in the estate of Jeffrey Lash provided insufficient information in support of their request. The evidence submitted included a sworn statement from veteran Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Barry Telis, who said he favored the transfer of the weapons to 57-year-old William John Murphy of Yorba Linda, owner of Gulf Tactical International LLC.
Telis said his check of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives database showed Lash bought all the guns legally and that none were connected to crimes. But the judge said that was not enough.
“There is no doubt that Telis is an experienced detective; he has not, however, stated that he is an authorized representative of the LAPD for purposes of the chain of comman in allowing release of firearms,” Cowan wrote in a seven-page decision.
Telis’ belief there is no probable cause for the LAPD to retain the firearms may require an opinion from the District Attorney’s Office or the City Attorney’s Office, according to Cowan.
Cowan also said a final determination of the issues should be decided in the criminal courts, including whether the firearms and ammunition should be destroyed and other former Lash property, including more than $220,000 in cash, be released instead. He said a gun dealer would have no control over the firearms and ammunition once they are sold and that the items “ultimately may end up in the wrong hands and hurt or kill one or more people.”
In October 2016, Michelle Lyons and Catherine Nebron, who had romantic relationships with Lash, sued his estate and its two representatives, Sanford Sheklow and Leslie Parness. Both women later settled their cases with the estate.
Nebron and Parness support the release of the weapons to Murphy. Sheklow’s attorney, Gary Ruttenberg, said the proceeds from the sales would be distributed to the estate and its heirs.
Lash died at age 60 on July 4, 2015, according to authorities. His decomposing body was found in an SUV owned by Nebron that was parked near her Pacific Palisades condominium.
Cowan cited the unusual nature of the death in his ruling, saying he had insufficient information explaining why Nebron “could have left a dying or dead man in his car for 10 days without calling an ambulance while he was alive or, once he was dead, not call for police for the 10 days (Lash) sat in it.”
According to Lyons’ suit, she had a longtime romantic relationship with Lash that began in 1984. He moved into Lyons’ one-bedroom apartment in 1986 after claiming he lost his own home due to a “terrorist act” and had spent his entire fortune “trying to end the terrorist group,” according to Lyons’ court papers.
The two lived together for 12 years, according to Lyons, who said that during their relationship, they had numerous verbal agreements in which she bought numerous items for him, ranging from firearms and ammunitions to food and clothing.
To convince Lyons to make purchases on his behalf, Lash told her he was an independent contractor with “government contacts and connections” to former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Vice President Joseph Biden, according to her lawsuit, which alleges that in reality, he was “a con man, lying and deceiving (Lyons) and using her for his own financial gain and benefit.”
Within months of his death, Lyons found out that he was “involved in romantic relationships with multiple women and that he had been using aliases and assumed names to avoid detection of his lies,” according to her lawsuit, which says Lash “was not employed with a government agency and had been lying to her about his employment for their entire relationship.”
Nebron’s suit stated that her father was a judge and that her godfather was the late California senator Alan Cranston.
“Lash, knowing her family background in politics, fraudulently claimed to have had telephone calls and other communications with retired Gen. David Petraeus, former President George W. Bush, ex-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, former first lady Laura Bush and other prominent political and national security figures,” Nebron’s suit says.
Nebron said she was owed $2.5 million for expenses she incurred on Lash’s behalf, including a $1.2 million advance of cash.