9 Arrested on Bookie Charges After 16 Raids

Los Angeles gaming officers raided 16 residences in recent days to break up three bookmaking rings that raked in about $700,000 a week, much of it from at least 200 bettors who work in the downtown garment district, police said Thursday.

Nine people were arrested in the raids and an unidentified 10th person has agreed to surrender today, said Capt. Jim Docherty of the Police Department’s Administrative Vice Division.

He said the arrests stemmed from a two-month investigation by undercover gaming detectives who were tipped that hundreds of workers in the garment district were engaged in illegal betting on horse racing and other sporting contests. The undercover work led detectives to the three bookmaking operations, based outside the downtown area.

Officers raided 10 residences last Friday, arresting six people allegedly involved in bookmaking activities. None of those arrested was a garment district worker. Among those arrested on suspicion of bookmaking was a reputed head of sports betting for one of the operations, Bruce Rollins, 49, of Burbank.

Docherty said others arrested last Friday were Jo Mary Schuman, 26; Diana Schuppe, 58; Marilyn Meier, 43; Earlene McFarland, 53, and Thomas Peterson, 45.

Officers raided six more places, mostly in the South Bay, on Wednesday, arresting three more people on suspicion of bookmaking. They were Homer W. Hazure, 46; Harold Toomer, 25, and Edward Randolph, 46, Docherty said. The suspects’ home towns were not immediately available.

On both days, officers confiscated bookmaking materials but no money.

Investigators said that although the illicit betting in the garment district is of concern, it does not constitute a major threat for authorities. “Where there is money,” said Sgt. Ron Smith, “bettors abound.”

The arrests came in the wake of an unrelated operation last Saturday in which Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department vice detectives raided a sophisticated bookmaking operation in East Los Angeles that they said used toll-free telephone numbers to take in at least $40 million last year.