28 New Charges Filed in Talent Agent Case

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office Tuesday filed 28 new criminal counts--including 19 of grand theft--against two Beverly Hills men previously accused of illegally operating a talent agency.

The operators of West Coast Talent Ltd., Alexander Zafrin, 37, and David Leroy Harris, 48, are scheduled to be arraigned today in Los Angeles Municipal Court. They were first charged in mid-July in a 17-count misdemeanor criminal complaint based on the allegations of six people.

After seeing news accounts of the case, 22 more people lodged complaints against the pair with the city attorney’s office, bringing the total count to 45.

The original charges, which resulted from an investigation by the county Department of Consumer Affairs, ranged from making false and misleading statements to misrepresenting an employment counseling service as a job placement service.

Investigators allege that the agency made unsolicited phone calls to invite parents to bring their children to auditions for acting jobs. Later the agency allegedly called the parents back and told them that their child was among a small group invited back for further screening--at which the parents were pressured to pay substantial fees for photographs and acting lessons.