Roth Pleads Guilty to 7 Misdemeanors : Corruption: The ex-Orange County supervisor will pay $50,000 in fines but escapes jail time. The action ends an influence-peddling probe that shattered his career.

Somber but unrepentant, former Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth pleaded guilty Thursday to seven criminal misdemeanor counts and agreed to pay $50,000 in fines, ending an influence-peddling probe that has shattered his once-thriving political career and rocked county government for nearly a year.

Roth, 71, who resigned his post on the board under fire March 1, escaped jail time and felony convictions. But he was ordered to serve three years probation and perform 200 hours of community service at a local youth center as part of a plea agreement finalized in court Thursday.

Roth said little during a 45-minute hearing before Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr., staring straight ahead with his hands crossed in front of him. But as he left the courthouse with his arm around his fiancee, the former Anaheim mayor told reporters glibly: “I’m going to Disneyland!”

Roth’s lawyers said the plea bargain exonerates the former mayor of Anaheim, insisting that Roth was acknowledging only technical violations of state laws that restrict gifts to politicians. But prosecutors said they achieved all they had hoped for.

“It’s nice to see this is finally over with, and we can move on,” said Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. “This was a violation of the public trust (by Roth), and we certainly view that very seriously.”

In a scathing search warrant affidavit two months ago, Capizzi’s office said it suspected Roth of campaign money-laundering, obstruction of justice and other possible felonies. But prosecutors backed down from those allegations Thursday, saying they did not have enough evidence to move ahead with the more serious charges.

Roth will be able to pay back at least some of the $50,000 in fines from his campaign fund, depending on how much he has left after his legal expenses are totaled.

Critics attacked the agreement, questioning whether prosecutors had gone easy on Roth after he was forced out of office.

“His resignation and pleading guilty would indicate that there might be more to it but that we’ll never know,” said William R. Mitchell, a lawyer who is president of Orange County Common Cause. “You just wonder how much was worked out behind closed doors that the public will never know about.”

Once among the most powerful political players in the state’s third-largest county, the former Navy aviator on Thursday became the highest-ranking elected official in Orange County to be convicted on criminal charges since 1980.

Capping an 11-month investigation by the district attorney, Roth admitted in court that he had violated the state’s 1974 Political Reform Act seven times by failing to report gifts he received and then voting on matters affecting the donors before the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The gifts at issue were: meals, trips and an $8,500 loan from an Orange County family that owns a dozen mobile home parks; more than $15,000 in improvements to Roth’s Anaheim Hills home from the Presley Co. of Southern California; the landscaping of Roth’s front yard by the Baldwin Co., another major developer; and sports tickets and free rounds of golf from the city of Anaheim.

Roth also admitted voting on matters that affected the mobile home park owners, the Presley Co., and Anaheim--in violation of state conflict-of-interest laws.

Even before Thursday’s pleas, the Roth case had sent tremors through the Orange County political scene. County officials moved quickly after his resignation to draft ordinances that would ban most gifts to politicians and tighten other ethics measures to win back public confidence.

Roth attorney Dana W. Reed maintained Thursday that Roth’s conviction should serve notice on 1,000 politicians in Orange County--who will file annual state gift-disclosure forms this month--that prosecutors are enforcing a new zero tolerance policy that allows no room for even technical errors.

“I think this has much greater significance than just a former supervisor pleading guilty to some misdemeanor,” Reed said. “What this tells the other 999 of us who fill these forms out is that they had better be examined carefully or we could find ourselves facing criminal charges.”

After the district attorney’s office began investigating the case, Roth found himself abstaining from government votes because of possible conflicts of interest that arose during the probe. He abstained 10 times from December to February.

Finally, Roth announced Feb. 23 that he was resigning effective March 1 because, he said, the investigation was eroding his ability to serve the county.