Alleged Accomplice in Biofem Shooting Called Office Twice

Detectives are examining whether two cell phone calls made by an alleged getaway driver offer key clues in the attempted murder of an Irvine drug company’s chief executive, police said Wednesday.

Investigators are trying to determine whether calls made to the company’s office shortly before the shooting of James Patrick Riley were fielded by Dr. Larry C. Ford, the victim’s business partner, said Irvine police Lt. Sam Allevato.

Allevato said the phone records are one reason police consider Ford a possible suspect in the unsuccessful murder plot.

Ford was in the Biofem office at the time of the attack and administered first aid to Riley after the executive telephoned the doctor to say he had been shot in the face, Allevato said.

Ford was a longtime friend of Dino D’Saachs, who has been charged with driving the unidentified gunman from the crime scene. While police said they do not consider other Biofem employees potential suspects, investigators remain unsure why D’Saachs called the firm and to whom he spoke.

“He could have been calling Biofem to see when Mr. Riley was going to show up . . . though it does seem like some kind of conspiracy,” Allevato said.

Prosecutors have alleged in court documents that D’Saachs, while parked outside Biofem’s offices, made two calls to an unidentified accomplice to confirm his location and discuss the arrival of employees shortly before the shooting. Police said they remain unclear as to whether those calls were to an accomplice inside Biofem.

The shooting of Riley--and Ford’s subsequent suicide--have left Irvine detectives with one of the most complicated and strangest cases in recent years.

A series of increasingly bizarre events followed the Feb. 28 shooting, when a masked gunman clad in black shot Riley in the cheek as the pharmaceutical company executive arrived at work around 9:50 a.m. Three days later, Ford fatally shot himself after police searched his Irvine home. He left a suicide note maintaining his innocence.

The strange twists in the case culminated two weeks ago in the evacuation of more than 200 of Ford’s neighbors as investigators unearthed a cache of illegal weapons from the doctor’s backyard along with jars of unidentified substances.

Adding to concerns over the chemicals are Ford’s work as an advisor to the South African apartheid-era program to develop biological and chemical weapons and speculation that he may have worked for federal intelligence agencies.

Meanwhile, the unidentified gunman remains at large. D’Saachs has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Police said he has refused to cooperate.

Only a week after the attempted murder, prosecutors took the unusual step of asking the Orange County Grand Jury to look into the alleged conspiracy. The panel has spent at least two weeks hearing testimony.

But testimony has provided detectives with few leads in their hunt for the elusive gunman, Allevato said.