Probe Targets 2 Ex-Officers on Chargers’ Payroll : Task force: Records are seized in an effort to determine if the former policemen ‘double-dipped’ by collecting two salaries.

A law enforcement task force investigating police corruption has seized financial records from the San Diego Chargers to determine whether two former San Diego police officers “double-dipped” by simultaneously collecting salaries from the football team and the Police Department, The Times has learned.

Six weeks ago today, members of the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force served a search warrant at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for the payroll and employee records of Dick Lewis and George Varela, longtime liaisons between the police chief’s office and the Chargers football team.

Neither Lewis nor Varela could be reached for comment during repeated attempts during the past week.

Lewis, 52, and Varela, 53, both worked for the Police Department for 20 years. From 1981 until last year, they worked as “community relations assistants” to the Chargers and reported directly to the police chief.

Their primary job was to work with Charger players in promoting drug education and crime prevention efforts in underprivileged communities. They also were employed by the Chargers to provide security on the sidelines during games and had approval to do so.

Both Lewis and Varela were mentioned in a 1986 Times series on ticket-fixing that found that a number of tickets, some to Charger players, were dismissed at their request. The scandal led to written reprimands for then-Police Chief Bill Kolender and then-Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen.

In addition, the 1989-90 San Diego County Grand Jury reportedly heard testimony suggesting that team members received preferential treatment from police because of Lewis and Varela.

The pair retired from the Police Department last year after Burgreen, who was appointed chief after Kolender retired, became concerned with the perception that the Chargers were getting preferential police protection. He asked Varela and Lewis to decide whether to stay with the department or join the Chargers.

In August, 1989, the Chargers hired both men full time to provide security. Team spokesman Bill Johnston said they provide player security during road games. Marketing director Rich Israel said they make sure players are in bed at the proper times and guard the team’s hotel floor to make certain they are not disturbed. Both men can be seen on the team’s sideline during games, where they provide protection for Head Coach Dan Henning.

Johnston and Chargers business manager Pat Curran said they had no comment about the investigation. Jack Teele, assistant to the president, said he had not heard anything about it. General Manager Bobby Beathard did not return several telephone calls to his office.

The task force seized the team’s financial and business records that related to Varela and Lewis on Nov. 6, looking primarily to compare the hours that the pair worked for the Chargers and for the department, according to a source close to the investigation.

“The focus of the records is (to investigate) the income they received,” the source said. “That’s one of the issues--whether they were paid by both” the department and team at the same time. “If they were working for the Chargers on city time, that’s taking city money.”

Assistant Police Chief Norm Stamper said he would not comment on the investigation, but said the department has a “very strict policy on what’s commonly referred to as double-dipping. You get paid by one (organization) or the other but not both.”

If police officers get paid for outside jobs, that work must take place during off-duty hours, Stamper said. All officers must submit requests for outside employment, and department administrators determine whether “there’s any chance that outside employment would reflect poorly on the department or compromise the integrity of the department in any way,” he said.

Stamper said the department, for example, has denied some requests for police officers to work as private security guards when it might be perceived that a business is getting preferential police protection under such circumstances.

Varela and Lewis held “unique positions,” Stamper said, in that they reported directly to Kolender and were the first full-time employees devoted to developing better community relations between the chief and various ethnic communities in San Diego.

Stamper said the department believed it was a good idea for Varela and Lewis to work with the Chargers because drug abuse and crime prevention programs worked best with professional football players as role models for youngsters.

Both men did such a good job promoting the department’s programs, Stamper said, that Burgreen now has four community relations assistants: one for the black community, one for the Latino community, one for the Asian community and one for the gay community.

Last year, Burgreen determined that having Varela and Lewis work for the Chargers “was a relationship that constituted a violation of our policy,” and both were given a choice of staying or leaving, Stamper said. They retired within two weeks of each other.

Police officers and their superiors are responsible for accurately accounting for their hours on time cards and overtime slips, Stamper said, adding that Varela and Lewis could be prosecuted if the investigation concludes that the pair collected money from both sources for working the same hours.

Besides investigating police corruption, the 2-year-old Metropolitan Homicide Task Force is probing the murders of 44 prostitutes and transients since 1985. The task force is a collection of detectives and prosecutors from the district attorney’s office, the state attorney general’s office, the Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department.

The branch of the task force probing police corruption is also seeking to determine whether police had anything to do with the disappearance or murders of any prostitutes.