Landlord Claims Roth Rental Deal Backdated : Investigation: He says key document in FBI conflict probe was signed in January, not in 1990 as it states.

Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth and his former landlord apparently backdated by 16 months a rental agreement now central to an investigation into whether Roth may have traded political favors for gifts, the landlord said this week.

The admission by businessman Donald G. Dougher directly contradicts past assertions by Roth, who has used the document to explain why he paid no rent while living at an Anaheim mobile home park owned by Dougher family members.

The rental agreement--dated Aug. 15, 1990--states that Roth was to live at the park for up to 18 months but pay his rent, at the rate of $500 a month, when he left.

In an interview with the Times Orange County Edition on Monday, however, Donald Dougher said he was unaware of any written agreement until he was asked to sign the document on Jan. 2, 1992. He said he agreed to “backdate” the document because Gerard J. Dougher, his brother and business partner, told him that unnamed people “might be making trouble for Roth” over his stay at the park.

A source familiar with the case also said that last December, Roth handwrote a draft of the rental agreement, sent it to Gerard Dougher and asked that it be formalized and backdated.

Through an aide, Roth declined Tuesday to discuss when the agreement was drafted or signed.

Roth’s attorney, Dana Reed, said Tuesday that he does not know when the agreement was drawn or signed. Asked about Donald Dougher’s assertion that the agreement was backdated, Reed said, “I’ve heard that. . . . But when the document was signed doesn’t have any relevance. It could be dated tomorrow, and it doesn’t change the facts.”

Gerard Dougher and his wife, Dorothy, declined to comment on the rental agreement as did their attorney, Richard E. Drooyan.

The FBI and the Orange County district attorney’s office are investigating whether Roth violated conflict-of-interest laws and other regulations governing public officials in his relationship with members of the Dougher family. Roth has acknowledged that he did not report several gifts from the Doughers as well as what amounted to an $8,500 interest-free loan in the form of the rent deferral. Then, in December, he voted with other supervisors in favor of a $5-million condominium project on Dougher-owned land in Midway City.

Two weeks before the Dec. 10 vote, Roth traveled to Santa Catalina Island as a guest of Gerard and Dorothy Dougher. On one credit card receipt from the trip with Roth, Dorothy Dougher wrote that its “purpose” was “to discuss supervisors’ meeting on rezoning” of the condominium property.

The receipt was among hundreds of Dougher corporate documents subpoenaed by a federal grand jury earlier this month in connection with the FBI’s Roth investigation.

In addition to that Catalina trip, authorities are also looking at Roth’s rental arrangement with the Doughers, who have donated heavily to his past political campaigns for supervisor and Anaheim City Council. In his interview with The Times, Donald Dougher said FBI agents have asked him about the document and the date of its signing.

Roth apparently moved to the Dougher’s Ponderosa Travel Trailer Park in the summer of 1990 after separating from his wife of 14 years. Roth has said that because of financial problems stemming from the divorce action, the Doughers allowed him to defer without interest his $500-a-month rent until after he moved out. Roth said that after leaving the park in December, 1991, he paid the Doughers $8,500 for 17 months’ back rent.

Political finance experts say the rental arrangement constituted a substantial loan that should have been publicly reported in Roth’s annual economic disclosure statement under the California Political Reform Act of 1974. It was not.

When Roth was first asked in an interview with The Times two months ago about whether he had been paying rent for his quarters at the Dougher park, the supervisor handed a copy of the rental agreement to a reporter.

The document--a single, type-written sheet, signed by Roth and Donald Dougher--said that Roth would rent an apartment at the Ponderosa park for “approximately 18 months, beginning August 15, 1990 or until his pending divorce is finalized, whichever comes first.” At the end of his stay, Roth would pay the Doughers $500 a month in back rent, it said.

Roth, in the interview in April, said the Doughers were friends who were helping him in a time of financial difficulty, and he pointed to the agreement as evidence to rebut any suggestion that he lived at the park for free.

“I wasn’t trying to hide anything,” he said, in explaining why he had not included the rent deferral on his disclosure form because it involved his primary residence.

Roth said he also saw no need to disclose the arrangement because he was unaware of any county business that involved the Doughers. However, minutes of the Dec. 10 supervisors meeting show that Gerard Dougher attended the session and was mentioned by name as being an interested party.

Donald Dougher told The Times on Monday that he actually signed the rental agreement Jan. 2, 1992, on the hood of a car in a Santa Ana office building garage while talking with Gerard Dougher. Gerard and Dorothy, who live in Laguna Beach, have been friends with Roth and hosted him on several trips to Santa Catalina Island in 1990-91.

Donald Dougher recalled that during that conversation in January with his brother, Gerard gave him the agreement to sign and told him it had to be backdated more than 16 months because “somebody might be making trouble for Roth.”

Dougher said he was uncertain what “trouble” Gerard was referring to.

At the time of the garage meeting, the FBI was looking into Roth’s relationship with the Doughers and reporters from several newspapers had been asking questions about Roth’s living arrangement at the trailer park.

Dougher said his brother had previously mentioned that Roth was staying at the trailer park and had agreed to pay $500-a-month rent.

But during their conversation, Donald Dougher said, his brother told him that “Roth couldn’t find his copy” of a prior lease agreement, “so (Gerard and Roth) decided to draw up another one.”

But Donald Dougher said “I certainly do not remember” signing any earlier agreements.

Dougher said his brother told him he was “going to meet with Roth” later that day at Gerard’s home and “Roth was going to sign it that day. . . . (Gerard) told me he wanted it dated the same day” that Roth moved into the trailer park.

When Donald Dougher signed the agreement, the Aug. 15, 1990, date was typed at the top, and there were two blank signature lines--above the legends “Occupant--Don R. Roth” and “Park Owner--Donald J. Dougher”--at the bottom for signatures. Below each signature line was typed the year “1990” with room left to insert the month and day.

The pact was typed on a single sheet of paper--in contrast to the standard, 15-page lease agreements that the family usually uses, Donald Dougher said. It included no requirement for a first month’s deposit, nor many of the other normal rental stipulations, he said.

Dougher’s lawyer, Ronald Cordova, pointed out that the wording of the agreement is unusual because it mentions Roth renting an apartment within the trailer park, although he initially lived for at least several months in a park trailer before moving to the apartment.

Dougher said he does not remember the family ever using a lease agreement like it for any of its other several thousand tenants at the dozen trailer parks they own in Orange County.

Gerard and Donald Dougher are now suing each other over ownership of their parks, and many of their assets are being controlled by a court-appointed receiver.

As a result, Donald Dougher said he still does not know whether the proceeds of an $8,500 check that Roth wrote for back rent on Jan. 23, 1992, actually went into a Doughers corporate account. “No idea,” he said.

Trailer Park Transaction

Supervisor Don R. Roth and Donald Dougher apparently back-dated an August, 1990, lease covering Roth’s stay at a trailer park owned by the Dougher family. Roth used the contract recently to explain how he lived at the Anaheim park for 17 months, but did not pay rent until he left. Dougher says he signed it in January, 1992, a month after Roth moved. While Roth lived at the park, he voted to rezone property that Dougher family members wanted to sell for a condominium project.

* Dougher says that when he signed the agreement, there was no Roth signature here.

* Dougher says he actually signed this agreement on Jan. 2, 1992.

* Roth’s check covering 17 months of rent at the Ponderosa park.

Source: Times staff reports

Researched by GEORGE FRANK and ERIC LICHTBLAU / Los Angeles Times