Supervisor May Face Felony Counts : Investigation: Prosecutors make new allegations in warrants to obtain bank records of Orange County’s Don Roth. His lawyer says accusations have ‘no substance.’

Leveling new and more serious accusations, local prosecutors disclosed Monday that they suspect embattled Orange County Supervisor Don Roth of numerous felonies, including perjury, theft of public funds, campaign money laundering and obstruction of justice.

The litany of allegations came in an affidavit that prosecutors filed to secure access to Roth’s personal bank records. Authorities served the warrant on two Orange County banks Monday morning, demanding records that might shed light on Roth’s financial relationship with at least five companies that have had business before the Board of Supervisors.

One of Roth’s lawyers, Dana Reed, said he had not seen the search warrant but characterized the allegations as “inflammatory language” used to gain access to the supervisor’s bank records.

“It clearly isn’t accurate,” Reed said. “Obviously there’s no substance to any of it.”

Approached outside his office Monday, Roth refused to comment. He has denied any wrongdoing in the past, and prosecutors--now into their ninth month of an influence-peddling probe prompted by articles in The Times last spring--have not formally charged the 71-year-old supervisor with any crimes.

Monday’s 27-page affidavit, however, offers a powerfully worded blueprint of potential criminal charges. It escalates the case against Roth from an investigation of misdemeanor reporting and conflict-of-interest violations to possible felonies involving his private and public affairs.

In asserting the need to obtain information from Roth’s savings and checking records at California Federal Bank in Santa Ana and American Commerce National Bank in Anaheim, prosecutors detailed a host of questionable transactions that have been disclosed publicly in recent months.

The alleged transactions include Roth’s double-billing of a trip to Europe funded by a public agency, his apparent acceptance of unreported gifts from local business people and backdating of a rental agreement that is a key part of the investigation. Prosecutors listed the backdating issue under the heading of “conspiracy to obstruct justice.”

The court documents raise one previously undisclosed allegation: that Roth falsified a home mortgage loan application, claiming he earned a fee of $4,000 a month as a consultant, possibly to meet minimum income requirements for the loan. In the affidavit, the district attorney’s office said it has found no evidence that Roth actually received such a fee.

If Roth did receive the fee payments, authorities said he might be in violation of other state and federal laws because the income did not show up on either his tax returns or on his state-required political disclosure statements.

Authorities, working with the Orange County grand jury, have been seeking to determine whether Roth engaged in a pattern of influence peddling, trading political favors for thousands of dollars in trips, flight upgrades, home improvements, an $8,500 interest-free loan and other unreported gifts.

A former mayor of Anaheim, Roth is widely considered one of the most influential politicians in Orange County. His attorney has said that the supervisor may have inadvertently failed to report some gifts and then voted on matters affecting the donors. Under state law, such violations can be prosecuted as misdemeanors.

But the potential crimes raised Monday--including money laundering, theft of public funds, perjury, obstruction of justice and tax evasion--can be prosecuted as felonies.

The affidavit filed Monday alleges that Roth:

* Laundered money through an Anaheim travel agency owned by a friend who arranged a 1990 tour of European train technology for Roth and a delegation of local business people. Roth billed the trip to both the California-Nevada Super-Speed Train Commission, a publicly funded agency, and to his own campaign. His intent was to defraud the commission of some $2,700, the affidavit alleges.

The affidavit notes that Roth repaid the money to his campaign in June, 1992, soon after the double-billing was disclosed in The Times. “It is my belief that Supervisor Don Roth made this payment in an attempt to cover up his wrongdoing,” investigator Douglas S. Miller wrote in the affidavit.

* Perjured himself several times on forms that the state requires officeholders to submit on their economic interests and recent gifts. The affidavit alleges that Roth failed to report that he had been given free landscaping by a major Orange County developer, that a prominent local lobbyist had given him a 2% stake in a fledgling company, or that he received what amounted to an $8,500 loan from a Laguna Beach family.

* Conspired to obstruct justice by backdating a rental agreement that he held with the family, who have contributed to Roth’s campaigns. The affidavit says the backdated document “may constitute evidence of an attempt by Supervisor Don Roth to conspire with others to obstruct justice by manufacturing evidence.”

A few days before the agreement was backdated, Roth voted with fellow supervisors to overturn a Planning Commission decision and approve a $5-million condominium project on land owned by the Laguna Beach family. Several weeks before that vote, Roth discussed the project on a trip to Santa Catalina Island paid for by the family, according to company business notes.

The search warrant executed Monday came after weeks of back-and-forth discussions between prosecutors and Roth’s lawyers.

Reed said in November that Roth would voluntarily turn over bank records to assist in the investigation, but he later deemed the district attorney’s request too broad and refused. That prompted authorities to obtain a warrant Saturday from Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan.

Prosecutors “basically asked Don to voluntarily waive his 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, and Don’s attorneys--myself included--recommended that he not do that,” Reed said Monday.