DMV Drops Car Tax Probe of Torrance Police Chief

The state Department of Motor Vehicles has closed its inquiry into the sales tax underpaid by Torrance Police Chief Donald E. Nash on a luxury car seized in a drug raid, saying there is no evidence that Nash intentionally under-reported the car’s value when he registered the car.

The agency is satisfied that Nash eventually paid the back taxes and penalty he owed, Jerry Galbreath, metropolitan Los Angeles area commander for the DMV Bureau of Investigations, said Friday.

In 1988, Nash bought a 1987 Jaguar XJ6 after it was seized by Torrance police in a cocaine raid. It previously had been co-owned by convicted drug dealer Jose Luis Bantula and his brother, Anthony Bantula.

Police released the car to Anthony Bantula, and Nash bought it for $25,500, records show. But when Nash registered the car, he listed the purchase price as $17,449.37, thus underpaying sales tax.

Nash told officials that he paid for the car with two separate checks--one for $17,449.37 to cover the outstanding loan on the car and another for the balance of the price--and inadvertently reported only the larger of the checks, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Nash paid the state $748.84 in December, which covered back taxes of $523.29, a penalty of $52.33 and interest of $173.22, the district attorney’s office said.

The district attorney’s office announced last month that it had investigated Nash’s purchase of the Jaguar but concluded that it would not file criminal charges.

Although the office found that Nash understated the purchase price, spokesmen for the office said it was not clear that he did so intentionally.

Nash did not return telephone calls Friday.

DMV officials began their inquiry after learning of the district attorney’s investigation. Galbreath said the DMV found that the district attorney’s office “did a thorough investigation.”

Reid Rose, the deputy district attorney who supervised that investigation, said Friday: “As far as we’re concerned, (the Nash case) was closed a month ago when we issued our rejection of the case.”