D. A. Looking at Mayor’s Actions in Property Vote : Lancaster: The city official has acknowledged getting a subsequent $9,780 commission, but says he did not know he was to receive it.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has opened a formal investigation to determine whether Lancaster Mayor William Pursley should face criminal conflict-of-interest charges for voting on a property from which he later earned a nearly $10,000 sales commission.

County prosecutors have been informally reviewing Pursley’s actions, which appear to be in violation of state conflict-of-interest laws, since they were disclosed last month in The Times.

“When we feel there may be something substantive to it, we open an investigation and look into it more closely,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Wenke, a prosecutor in the special investigations division, which handles criminal probes of official misconduct by politicians.

Pursley’s attorney, Robert Berke, said he had not heard of the district attorney’s decision to intensify the inquiry and had no other comment. Pursley has acknowledged his council vote and commission income, but insists that he did not know at the time of the vote that he was to receive money from the sale.

Wenke said he could not discuss how the inquiry will be conducted or how long it will last. But in a similar case involving Lancaster officials from 1983 to 1985, district attorney investigators conducted scores of interviews, gathered city records and served search warrants at two businesses.

The Pursley investigation will focus on the mayor’s introduction of and vote on a measure passed by the Lancaster council June 18, which reduced a city easement on land owned by Clyde Golding, one of Pursley’s business partners. Golding said the council action was instrumental in clinching a pending sale of the one-acre parcel. Pursley, his real estate agent, earned a $9,780 commission.

State law makes it illegal for public officials to vote on or participate in decisions in which they have a foreseeable financial interest. Apart from the criminal investigation, Pursley’s case is also under review by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which can fine violators.

Officials convicted of criminal conflict of interest, a misdemeanor charge, can be barred from running for office for four years. Although offenders can face jail time, such cases are rare and most violators are fined by the FPPC.

County prosecutors have only filed several such cases in recent years, including one in which former Lancaster Councilman Louis Bozigian was acquitted in 1986. Prosecutors had charged that Bozigian voted for a street map that benefited property he was representing.

To obtain a conviction, the prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and obtain a unanimous jury verdict.