Sheriff’s Fund Was Misused, Records Show : Law Enforcement: Jim Roache bought furniture with money earmarked for purchase of evidence and information.

Nearly $13,000 of a special fund established to purchase evidence and pay informants has improperly been used for furniture in the office of Sheriff Jim Roache and Undersheriff Jay LaSuer, other equipment and travel expenses, according to records obtained by The Times.

Records indicate that $3,000 alone was used to buy two oak wall cabinets, one stained to match Roache’s walnut desk and one stained to match LaSuer’s cherrywood desk.

LaSuer authorized a separate expenditure of $950 to fit Roache’s desk with a glass top and $572.53 for the undersheriff’s own new “Ero-Dynamic” graphite chair, which the department spent $25 to have delivered. LaSuer also approved $147 from the special fund to repair and clean his chair.

In August, LaSuer approved spending $601.98 for a camera system in the new sheriff’s headquarters, in violation of the spending guidelines. Another $1,057 was used to pay for locks and bolts in sheriff’s headquarters last July, also an improper expenditure.

Special funds are to be used “for the purchase of criminal-related information or the purchase of evidence,” according to the sheriff’s own policies and procedures manual.

Spending from the sheriff’s special fund is strictly limited to expenses “incurred in criminal cases” and should be for “the preservation of peace” and “the suppression of crime.”

The purchase of investigative equipment with the special fund is to be done “to a very limited degree,” according to the state’s Government Code and the sheriff’s own policies and procedures, and only then for the suppression of crime.

Through the California Public Records Act, The Times requested a review of all special fund expenditures made since Roache became sheriff. On Friday, Roache provided a breakdown of the $212,863 that had been spent from the special fund since he took office Jan. 7, 1991.

In a press release issued late Friday, Roache conceded that he had misspent $12,800 in special fund expenditures, including money for protective vests and travel money that should have come out of funds seized in drug raids.

Roache said he was already conducting an audit of the funds, and a spokesman said The Times inquiry was a coincidence.

“Our own internal fiscal audit discovered a handful of expenditures which do not meet my test for compliance with the enabling regulations,” Roache said in a statement. “At my direction, these expenditures are being corrected and policy and procedure is now revised to prevent similar inadvertent errors in the future. We also concluded that no taxpayer funds have been misused.”

Among the “irregular expenditures” Roache acknowledged was $3,000 for two oak wall units, one for his own office and one for LaSuer.

According to an invoice for the work obtained by The Times, LaSuer authorized the money in September for the cabinets, which include a sliding “TV tray,” storage areas and a “glass-covered display area.”

A notation on the invoice says that the unit for Roache’s office “will be stained to match (his) walnut desk. The unit for Mr. LaSuer’s desk will be stained to match (his) cherrywood desk.”

Roache said the cabinets are now being paid out of the sheriff’s “headquarters building fund” that the County Board of Supervisors approved for moving the headquarters from downtown to Kearny Mesa.

The same fund is now being used to cover $719 in costs a year ago for LaSuer’s graphite “Ero-Dynamic” chair, which included $419 for the chair, $86 for black-frame arms, $41 in sales tax and $25 for freight. The money had improperly come out of the special fund, Roache acknowledged.

Last July, LaSuer approved $147 of the special fund to repair and clean the chair. A notation on the invoice shows that it was treated with Scotch-guard and was stripped and re-stained.

An expenditure of $950 was approved by the undersheriff to refinish a county-owned desk and fit it with a glass top. An invoice shows it cost $800 to refinish and $150 to temper the glass and place it on top.

“That desk is in my office,” Roache said in a statement. “The desk and credenza set is valued at $26,000 and, as a taxpayer, the choice between refinishing and replacing was easy.”

Roache said the headquarters building fund would be used to pay for refinishing the desk.

The building fund also will be used to pay $2,654 for installation of a security camera system and security locks for the Kearny Mesa headquarters and $316 to move a safe of “highly confidential” investigative files, Roache said, even though the money had first come out of the special fund.

Although Roache and his administrators should have authorized $3,411 for travel and training and $1,760 for bullet-proof SWAT vests for his border drug interdiction team from a pool of money seized in drug raids, the money was improperly allocated from the special fund, the sheriff said.

Roache said he realizes the mistake and the money will be transferred.

Although the county auditor-controller’s office must review expenditures in the special fund each year, Auditor William J. Kelly said this week that his office had not gotten around to scrutinizing the records for fiscal year 1991-92, which ended June 30.

“As usual, we expect the auditor to conduct his normal, in-depth review of these expenditures,” Roache said. “We believe our self-audit has already identified all possible errors and we look forward to working with the auditor should any other questions arise.”