FBI Seizes Documents in Roth-Doughers Case : Investigation: Among papers taken by agents serving grand jury subpoena in influence-peddling probe are invoices showing meals mobile home park owners hosted for local politicians, attorney says.

As part of an investigation into links between a family of mobile home park owners and Supervisor Don R. Roth, FBI agents served a grand jury subpoena here Thursday and seized hundreds of documents that may shed light on the family’s business and political ties.

Among the documents seized from the office of an attorney representing members of the Dougher family were credit-card invoices showing meals that family members hosted for several Orange County politicians, according to the lawyer, who declined to disclose the officials’ names.

“The subpoena was served, and we complied,” said Ronald Cordova, the attorney for Donald J. Dougher and his son, Donald J. Dougher II, who have secured a grant of immunity from federal officials to cooperate in the investigation.

The FBI has said it is investigating whether members of the Dougher family took part in a “quid pro quo” to trade trips, meals, loans and other gifts for political favors from Roth. The Orange County district attorney’s office is also probing allegations of influence peddling against Roth, a two-term supervisor from Anaheim.

The Times reported in late April that Roth had failed to report in state-required filings that he accepted three trips to Santa Catalina Island and what amounted to an $8,500 interest-free loan through an unusual rental agreement with the Doughers. The supervisor later voted in favor of a $5-million condominium project in Midway City on land owned by the Doughers.

Cordova said the FBI served him with a subpoena that was issued recently by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. He added that the agent searched through family business documents at his office for several hours Thursday afternoon and left with a stack of papers about 18 inches high.

Roth declined comment Thursday, and his attorney, Dana Reed, is out of town.

The FBI said the official who is authorized to comment on the case was not available.

The documents seized Thursday from Cordova’s office are central to a lawsuit that Donald Dougher has filed in Orange County Superior Court against his brother, Gerard J. Dougher of Laguna Beach. It alleges that the brother embezzled large sums of money from the family assets. The Doughers and companies they control own a dozen mobile home parks in Orange County, from Brea to Laguna Hills.

An attorney for Gerard Dougher described the suit as “baseless.”

Armed with a court order issued as part of the civil lawsuit, representatives for Donald Dougher last December seized what Cordova said amounted to nearly a million documents from Gerard Dougher’s home--where much of the business was run--and from elsewhere, said Cordova. Gerard Dougher has maintained that this was an illegal “raid” and that his brother took possession of many personal documents and belongings that were unrelated to the family business.

Sources familiar with the documents said they reflect dozens of meals that Gerard and his wife, Dorothy Dougher, bought for Roth and his then-wife, Jackie, in Palm Springs, San Francisco, Hollywood and locales around Orange County from 1986 to mid-1990. The records also show additional meals since late 1990 that included Roth and his current fiancee, Diane Bonner, during trips to Santa Catalina Island since late 1990.

Credit-card receipts and other family business records indicate that the Doughers hosted Don Roth and often his then-wife Jackie most frequently at restaurants in Palm Springs, according to sources who have seen these records.

These restaurant bills ranged from just under $20 to more than $110 each, with many of the meals at a seafood restaurant called Sorrentino’s, sources said. But the receipts do not indicate how many people were present for the meals.

One person who has worked for the Doughers, but demanded anonymity, said some Dougher employees privately questioned why these trips were billed to the Dougher corporate accounts.

“These trips were very hush-hush,” the former employee said. When bills for the trips showed up, the employee added, “you didn’t ask questions. You did as you were told.”

“All of these trips were paid for through the company,” the source added. “The lunches, dinner, everything. . . . There was no reimbursement (from Roth)--nothing came through that I ever saw.”

The documents, Cordova maintained, corroborate the allegations in the civil suit and represent “a paper trail of embezzlement” by Gerard Dougher against Donald.

But George Cary, an attorney for Gerard Dougher, when told of the subpoena that was served, said: “I don’t think this means anything for our (civil) case.”

He said that when the civil suit between the two brothers “is tried in court, where it belongs, rather than in the press, the truth will come out. And it will be shown these charges are baseless.”

Gerard Dougher could not be reached for comment Thursday. He has declined comment on the case in the past.