7 Accused of Embezzling $332,583 From Dodgers : Ex-Club Official Charged With Padding Salaries, Keeping 50% of Excess Pay

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

Edward Peter Campos, 45, the club’s operations payroll chief for 18 years, is accused of conspiring with other employees to add extra money to their paychecks by crediting them for hours that they did not work.

In return, authorities charge, Campos received kickbacks averaging 50% of the extra money.

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

Campos also allegedly added fictitious names and the names of the girlfriends of two suspects to the Dodger payroll.

Youngdahl said Campos, who did not handle the payroll for Dodger players, had set up the payroll system and personally filled out payroll cards for each of 400 employees.

“He knew the system backwards and forwards, the Dodgers trusted him, and when he was on vacation, he even came back and did the payroll. The Dodgers thought, ‘Here’s someone who was dedicated,’ ” Youngdahl said.

According to a police report, Campos of Glendale acknowledged his participation in the scheme to Dodger officials last year. But in his Los Angeles Municipal Court arraignment Tuesday, 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. All nine defendants remain free on their own recognizance pending a court appearance Oct. 21 to set a preliminary hearing.

Authorities said Dodger management found that it was losing money after Campos became ill and controller Kenneth Hasemann temporarily took over Campos’ duties in June, 1985. Hasemann became suspicious when he found that several employees had been paid in even dollar amounts on previous checks.

“Since these employees were all hourly workers, a payroll check in even dollar salary amounts mathematically was almost impossible to achieve,” according to a court document filed in the case.

Following an investigation, the seven suspects were fired, said Dodgers legal counsel Sam Fernandez, and new controls were instituted to prevent improper payments.

Campos faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and eight months if convicted. The other defendants face five-year maximum sentences, although Youngdahl said he may seek restitution rather than prison for the co-conspirators.