Plisky Was Target of D.A. Probe, Source Says : Oxnard: Ex-councilman disputes a claim that his contacts with a land speculator could have warranted a corruption investigation more than a year ago.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury once used an Oxnard land speculator as an undercover operative in an unsuccessful public corruption probe aimed at former Oxnard Councilman Michael Plisky, The Times was told Friday.

Attorney Carl (Tony) Capozzola, representing speculator Donald T. Kojima in a battery case, charged that Bradbury later turned on Kojima when the investigation failed and overzealously prosecuted him after Kojima attacked a former girlfriend.

“There’s definitely political machinations in this case,” Capozzola said.

Capozzola would say only that Kojima worked for the district attorney’s office in an undercover role in an unspecified public corruption case in Oxnard. But Kojima’s ex-girlfriend and business associate, Lynell Dubowy, identified Plisky as the target of the investigation more than a year ago.

Plisky, who did not seek reelection last year and instead won a seat on the Oxnard Harbor District, expressed surprise Friday that he could ever have been targeted by Bradbury in a corruption investigation and said he doubts that any inquiry was really conducted.

An outspoken critic of a project Kojima was trying to push through the Oxnard City Council in 1993, Plisky also strongly denied that he ever did anything that would have warranted an investigation into any of his contacts with Kojima.

“I did not know that I was under investigation, and frankly I doubt that I ever was. It is a false accusation and a ridiculous charge,” Plisky said. “When Kojima gets in trouble he gets desperate.”

Bradbury was out of his office on Friday and could not be reached for comment. His top assistant, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee, declined comment.

Capozzola, a Redondo Beach lawyer, began representing Kojima last year after he was arrested for allegedly breaking into Dubowy’s house, punching her and breaking her cheekbone. After Kojima was charged with felony battery, spousal abuse and burglary, Capozzola unsuccessfully tried to disqualify Bradbury and his office from prosecuting Kojima on grounds of conflict of interest.

For months, Capozzola had tried to get the charges against Kojima reduced, arguing that the felony counts were “way out of line” for such a case. While he has repeatedly hinted at some earlier connection between Kojima and Bradbury, he avoided any public mention of a past investigation until Friday, when the case was finally settled.

Kojima pleaded guilty to felony battery Friday in exchange for the two other charges being dropped. He faces a maximum six-month jail term when he is sentenced in January.

Following Kojima’s guilty plea Friday, Dubowy spoke for the first time in detail about the unsuccessful investigation.

She said it centered on a $5-million land swap involving Kojima and the city of Oxnard. Kojima owns 41 acres of land near St. John’s Medical Center that Oxnard officials have agreed to buy.

According to Dubowy, Kojima went to Bradbury and alleged that Plisky was seeking a large payment in exchange for favorable votes on the Kojima project in northeast Oxnard.

The amount of money mentioned was between $20,000 and $30,000, she said.

Told of Dubowy’s comments on Friday, Plisky denied ever having made any such request to Kojima. He said he has never done anything that could have warranted any kind of scrutiny from Bradbury, and added that he thinks “Bradbury is smart enough” to have known there was never any reason to look into his activities.

Kojima could not be reached for comment Friday. But in a June, 1994, interview with The Times, he charged that Plisky had made inappropriate and unreasonable requests related to his land in 1992. Plisky then engaged in a personal vendetta to try to kill the deal when Kojima refused to cooperate, Kojima contended.

“I was shocked,” Kojima said.

Others told The Times that Plisky--following a controversial practice he had employed with other developers--upset Kojima by referring him to political consultant and lobbyist Donald A. Gunn after Kojima sought Plisky’s help in land-use matters.

Kojima refused to discuss any meeting with Gunn in the 1994 interview, but another source told The Times that Gunn had discussed a consultant’s fee with Kojima. Gunn declined comment at the time.

Plisky acknowledged at the time that he had referred Kojima to Gunn--who had been Plisky’s campaign manager for a decade--after Kojima came to him and “said he needed help with the planning process.”

“I did not make any improper requests,” Plisky said at the time. “I don’t think he encountered anything inappropriate from me.”

In her comments Friday, Dubowy said Kojima viewed Plisky as a political adversary after their initial contacts on the land deal.

“He didn’t want Plisky being on the City Council,” Dubowy said.

Dubowy lived with Kojima in Oxnard for six years until their breakup last year and the attack that followed the breakup. She also managed Kojima’s rental properties during the time they lived together.

Dubowy said she was present more than a year ago when investigators placed a hidden tape recorder on Kojima before a meeting connected to the investigation. But the meeting yielded nothing incriminating and the investigation came to a halt shortly afterward, Dubowy said.

Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said Friday that the comments about a past investigation involving Kojima in some sort of undercover role will not have any effect on the ongoing negotiations between city officials and Kojima.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a land deal,” said Lopez, who added that he knew nothing of any past inquiry by Bradbury related to the Kojima land swap.

Negotiations between Kojima and the city have continued this year in the complex land-swap project. Kojima recently threatened to pull out of the deal and sue the city because he was not chosen as the developer of the land he sold, city officials have said.

Staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this report.