Producer Sent to Prison on Theft Charge

A producer-director charged with more than 20 counts of fraud was sentenced Wednesday to three years and eight months in prison after he admitted to grand theft.

Dirk Wayne Summers, 46, a Fallbrook resident who formerly lived in Sherman Oaks and Encino, pleaded guilty last month to defrauding the Starving Students moving company in 1984 by writing a bad check for $2,958. He also admitted stealing $2,000 one year earlier from a man who thought he was investing in a business partnership with Summers and expected to get the money back.

Before Summers entered a plea agreement, he had faced 22 charges, including grand theft, auto theft, passing bad checks and receiving stolen property.

His grand theft case in Van Nuys Superior Court was marked by allegations of conflict of interest on the part of the prosecutor who filed most of the charges, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael E. Consiglio.

Summers’ attorney, James H. Barnes, unsuccessfully sought to have the state attorney general’s office handle the case after alleging that Consiglio had a personal interest in prosecuting Summers because of a business dispute between Summers and a former San Fernando Valley stockbroker who Barnes said was a friend of the prosecutor.

Summers testified against the former broker, Maurice Rind, in a 1985 Securities and Exchange Commission civil action.

Rind was an investor in the ZZZZ Best carpet cleaning company, which Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has said is the subject of an ongoing investigation into possible money-laundering and links to organized crime.

“Dirk Summers did come into play in the ZZZZ Best investigation,” LAPD Lt. David Smith said. “His name came up and he was interviewed.” Smith declined to elaborate.