Probe Targets Alleged Billing Scheme; $200,000 Believed Stolen : Investigation: Sheriff’s Department called in to avoid appearance of conflict. It is second time City Hall has come under scrutiny in two weeks.

Sheriff’s detectives are trying to find out whether $200,000 in city funds was stolen during the last three years in a suspected billing scheme, officials said this week.

The probe is the second to touch City Hall in the last two weeks. Sheriff’s deputies and investigators from the district attorney’s office seized records from the mayor’s office on April 15 in connection with a yearlong investigation of alleged profit-skimming and other improprieties at the Huntington Park Casino.

Investigators also searched and seized documents from the residences and businesses of Councilmen Thomas E. Jackson, Jack W. Parks and William P. Cunningham. They also searched the residence and business of former Councilman Jim Roberts, who lost his reelection bid last April. Jackson was mayor at the time of the searches last week, but Parks has since moved into the largely ceremonial post.

No charges have been filed in that case.

A source familiar with the probe of the $200,000 loss at City Hall said officials suspect a former employee purchased goods, which were never delivered, from an out-of-state firm. They suspect the employee received kickbacks.

Lt. Joe Lista of the sheriff’s forgery and fraud detail said: “We’re investigating the allegation that certain merchandise was ordered by the city and not received by the city.” Lista declined to identify the type of merchandise involved.

A review by city officials revealed that Huntington Park may have lost between $200,000 and $250,000 during the last three years, Huntington Park Police Chief Patrick M. Connolly said.

Connolly said he requested that the Sheriff’s Department conduct the inquiry to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

In the casino probe, sheriff’s investigators searched and seized records last October from the casino and the Manhattan Beach residence of Curtis J. Fresch, the casino’s general manager.

Court documents supporting search warrants indicated that detectives were looking for evidence that casino management under-reported gambling profits and assigned a casino employee to work for another business.

Those actions could constitute grand theft because the limited partners of the casino would not have received their fair share of revenue from the card club, an investigator said.

The city of Huntington Park also would have been shortchanged; the city owns the land under the casino and receives lease payments based on a percentage of card club revenues. The city received about $350,000 from the casino last year.

A district attorney’s spokeswoman would say only that last week’s searches were connected with the ongoing investigation of the Huntington Park Casino.

The three councilmen and Roberts said they are innocent of any wrongdoing and did not know why the searches were being carried out.

Fresch has declined to comment on the investigation.

The City Council voted last week to pay for lawyers to represent the three councilmen and Roberts, if need be, during the next three months. Each of the three councilmen abstained when it came time to vote on whether he would be given counsel paid for by the city.

“If they accuse me of a felony, I will be found innocent,” Jackson said. “We got caught up in a situation regarding the casino . . . we’re pawns.”

Two other Huntington Park councilmen, Luis Hernandez and Raul Perez, took office last year and were not targets of the search warrants.

Hernandez cast the sole vote against providing the attorneys. He said the city should not pay for a councilman’s defense in a criminal investigation.

Several area residents who spoke during the meeting, including a local official of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also opposed providing the attorneys.

“If a City Council member is accused of alleged wrongdoing, why should the city pay?” said Rudy Garcia, director of a Southeast-area chapter of LULAC.