D.A.’s Office Investigates Park Workers : Inquiry: A third L.A. city employee is under suspicion with regard to agency’s community service program for convicted offenders.

The Special Investigations Division of the district attorney’s office confirmed Monday it is investigating two city of Los Angeles employees suspected of taking bribes from convicted offenders ordered to perform community service in city parks.

City and county authorities also said they are investigating a third Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks employee suspected of helping offenders escape community service in the program, which is considered a crucial element of the city’s efforts to clean up parks and public facilities in tight budgetary times.

Police also confirmed that they obtained tape recordings during a sting operation aimed at uncovering corruption in the parks department.

Two men were arrested and questioned early last month. However, in the case of the third person, authorities said they are trying to determine whether the employee helped offenders in exchange for bribes or for some lesser motivation, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger Gunson, head deputy in the Special Investigations Division.

Police would not release the third person’s name, and parks officials said they haven’t been notified about a third suspect.

“I don’t know anything about a third person,” said parks department Personnel Director Elliott Porter. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t a third person, but that we haven’t received a request for disciplinary action.”

Gunson and bunco detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department said, however, that they met to discuss the case last week, and that the district attorney’s investigation now focuses on three employees at the parks department’s West San Fernando Valley District maintenance yard in Northridge.

“We received a file, an investigation from LAPD,” said Gunson, who said prosecutors can review such matters before deciding whether to reject the case or file charges, or continue to investigate the allegations. “This one’s under investigation.”

The district attorney’s office said senior gardeners Willard M. Stone of Granada Hills and Manuel Perez, could face felony bribery charges if a case is filed against them.

Stone and Perez were arrested and released early last month as part of a police sting operation, which started when a convicted offender went to city parks officials and said he had been offered a chance to buy his way out of the community service.

Many court-ordered community service sentences are for 200 hours or more, and authorities have alleged that the two supervisors charged offenders $1 per hour to buy their way out of doing cleanup work at several Valley parks, Porter said.

In the wake of the sting operation, the parks department has launched a citywide investigation into suspected corruption in the wide-ranging community service program, Porter said.

That departmental investigation has identified several other potential problems in the community service program, which puts hundreds of people convicted of minor offenses to work cleaning up parks as a condition of their probation.

Perez, whose address was not released, could not be reached for comment, and Stone has refused comment. Stone’s wife said he has done nothing wrong, and his lawyer, Fred Bien, said Stone plans to plead innocent if any charges are filed against him.

Stone and Perez also face disciplinary hearings. Porter said they would be fired “if the facts are as they appear to be.”

The two were not booked after being brought in for questioning because authorities believed the investigation would take longer than the 72 hours that a suspect can be detained, and because they were not believed to be flight risks, said Detective Bob Helvin, head of the Police Department’s Major Fraud Unit.

Gunson said Deputy Dist. Atty. Reid Rose has been assigned the case and will decide whether to file charges against the men when he returns to work next week.