Figure in Ethics Inquiry May Try to Halt Probe : Government: A judge is expected to be asked today to throw out grand jury subpoenas in the criminal investigation of the city attorney’s office.

A figure in the criminal investigation of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office is expected to ask a judge today to halt the probe and throw out grand jury subpoenas in the case, the executive director of the city’s ethics agency said Monday.

“The Ethics Commission has been officially informed that at least one of the individuals involved is going to bring some type of motion (today) in Superior Court to stop the investigation,” city ethics chief Ben Bycel said.

The individual, whom Bycel said he could not identify because of confidentiality requirements, gave notice Monday through an attorney that he will seek to void subpoenas that have been issued and have “the investigation thrown out.”

The probe by the year-old ethics agency is being conducted with assistance from the district attorney’s office. It centers on possible payroll irregularities and improper political activities among employees in City Atty. James K. Hahn’s office, law enforcement and City Hall sources have said.

The Times reported last month that the investigation is revolving partly around two Hahn employees----Charles P. Fuentes, a top aide and state Democratic Party vice chairman, and Anthony C. Roland, a city computer specialist who runs a private political consulting firm that serves prominent Democratic Party figures.

Fuentes’ and Roland’s payroll records have been ordered delivered to the grand jury this week, according to a subpoena issued to the city controller’s office.

Fuentes and Roland have not responded to several Times’ requests for interviews.

About 20 city employees were subpoenaed to appear this week before the grand jury, which is being used for investigative purposes to secure documents and question witnesses under oath, sources said. The subpoenas were issued after an early morning raid Dec. 26 on Hahn’s suite of offices at City Hall East. Investigators armed with search warrants carted off computer equipment, personnel records and other files.

They also searched Roland’s home, sources said.

Hahn has not been subpoenaed, and, according to the district attorney’s office, is not a target of the investigation.

The scope and basis of the challenge to the subpoenas was not clear Monday. If successful, it could be a setback for the ethics agency’s first major investigation.

It appears to relate to the legal authority of the Ethics Commission and its special prosecutor, attorney David Alkire, to conduct the investigation, Bycel said.

The district attorney’s office has deputized Alkire, a private attorney, to act as the ethics agency’s counsel during the grand jury proceedings.

Ethics Commission attorneys and those representing the district attorney’s office were developing their legal strategy for today’s hearing, Bycel said.

“Courtrooms are for evidence to be presented,” he said. “Until we are ordered to stop, this investigation is going ahead full steam.”

A spokeswoman for the district attorney declined to comment.