7 Ex-Dodger Employees Deny Embezzlement

Seven former employees of the Los Angeles Dodgers, including the baseball team’s former payroll chief, surrendered for arraignment today on felony charges stemming from the alleged embezzlement of $332,583 from the club between 1983 and 1985.

Edward Peter Campos, payroll chief for hourly employees for 18 years, is charged with conspiring with the other employees to add extra money to their paychecks by crediting them for hours they did not work. In return, authorities charge, Campos received kickbacks averaging 50% of the extra money.

Campos, 45, of Glendale, also allegedly added the names of the girlfriends of two other suspects and fictitious names to the Dodgers payroll.

“We had $2,000 weekly paychecks,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert M. Youngdahl, “for employees earning $7 an hour.”

Pleads Not Guilty

According to a police report, Campos acknowledged his participation in the scheme last year. But in a Los Angeles Municipal Court arraignment today, he pleaded not guilty to charges of grand theft, conspiracy and failure to pay state income taxes in 1983 through 1985.

Also pleading not guilty were Andrew George Gaspar, 35, of Monrovia, a security guard; Larry Lloyd Lundwall, 49, of Los Angeles, a security guard; Ralph Lopez, 45, of Los Angeles, a ticket office supervisor; Asa Alonzo Cudger, 41, of Los Angeles, a security guard; Dawn Denise Menard, 22, of Pasadena, Gaspar’s girlfriend, and Pamela Sue Granger, 24, of Hacienda Heights, the girlfriend of security guard Todd Nelson Troutner, 28, of Hacienda Heights.

The arraignments of Troutner and Steven Paul Graaf, 29, of Alhambra, a security guard, were postponed until Sept. 30.