Convicted Supervisor’s ‘Creative’ Accounting Detailed

Convicted former Supervisor Don R. Roth intentionally undervalued expensive meals from business people through “creative” bookkeeping so he could continue voting on their projects, his chief of staff told authorities in an interview made public this week.

The newly released documents also raise the previously undisclosed allegation that Roth secretly accepted several thousand dollars in cash in the 1980s for trips to Hawaii and Palm Springs from W. Patrick Moriarty, the Anaheim fireworks manufacturer who later became the key figure in one of the biggest corruption scandals in state history.

Roth, who was mayor of Anaheim at the time, even posed for photos with the cash, his ex-wife, Jackie Roth, alleged in an interview last November with the Orange County district attorney’s office. But authorities apparently never obtained any such photo.

Transcripts of both interviews were among seven volumes of material from the investigation that were reviewed by The Times under the California Public Records Act.

Roth “always voted to keep the fireworks going,” Jackie Roth told investigators. “I think it was Patrick’s way of probably saying thank you.”

The new allegations hit at the heart of two of Roth’s central defenses during the 11-month influence-peddling probe that ended last week with his criminal conviction: that any violations of political ethics laws were “technical” and “inadvertent,” and that Roth never accepted illegal cash payments from Southland business people while a politician.

Roth’s attorney, Paul S. Meyer, refused comment Thursday and said Roth also would not be available to discuss the new allegations. “He won’t want to talk about the facts of any part of the investigation now that it’s settled,” Meyer said.

District attorney’s officials did not pursue either of the issues in pressing charges against Roth last week, saying that they were hindered by the statute-of-limitations and other legal pitfalls.

The highly publicized probe of Roth was aimed at determining whether the former supervisor traded his votes for as much as $40,000 in home improvements, trips, stock and other gifts from local business people.

The probe forced Roth, 71, to resign his post on March 1, ending his career as one ofOrange County’s most powerful politicians.

Prosecutors never established that Roth accepted any bribes. But last week, after reaching an agreement with the district attorney that allowed him to avoid jail time, Roth pleaded guilty to seven political ethics-law violations--all misdemeanors--and agreed to pay $50,000 in fines. He was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and placed on three years’ probation.

Roth admitted violating state laws that require local officials to report all gifts of $50 or more and prohibit them from voting on matters affecting anyone who has given them $250 in gifts within a year.

The newly released transcripts from the probe add details to many of the allegations that have emerged publicly in the last year about gifts to Roth--from frequent stays in Palm Springs as a guest of local business people to free tickets in Las Vegas and New York.

While Roth’s lawyers have portrayed his violations of state gift-reporting and conflict-of-interest laws as a matter of negligence, the supervisor’s longtime chief of staff, Steven E. Malone, painted a different picture in the interview with investigators last month. Malone suggested that Roth was aware of his potential gift-reporting problems for several years--but found ways to avoid them.

Malone told investigators in a March 8 interview, one week after Roth resigned, that he and the supervisor hit on a system several years ago for reporting free meals in Roth’s annual gift-disclosure statements: they would list $10 for breakfast, $20 for lunch, and $30 for dinner--regardless of the meal’s actual cost.

Often, Malone acknowledged to authorities, a lunch at Antonello’s or the Ritz, two pricey Orange County restaurants, would far surpass $20--particularly if Roth and other guests ordered wine or other drinks.

One particular problem arose several years ago with GTE, later to become Contel, which was awarded a multimillion-dollar county telephone contract and also provided Roth with regular meals, golf outings and other gifts.

“I suggested he was . . . in a very treacherous area, and he might want to consider abstaining” from GTE/Contel votes, Malone said. But Roth simply told him: “Don’t worry about it,” the aide recounted.

Asked about the transcripts Thursday, Malone told a reporter he did not “feel comfortable” talking about the case.