Searches Target Key Compton Figures

In a sweeping probe of possible corruption, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office served search warrants Wednesday on much of Compton’s political elite. Investigators temporarily closed City Hall and combed through 10 other locations, including the homes of two City Council members and a former mayor and the community college president’s office.

The investigation’s focus appeared to be the official and personal financial activities of former Mayor Omar Bradley and his allies. Copies of search warrants obtained by The Times suggested that investigators were focusing in particular on two Bradley confidants, Councilman Amen Rahh and Bradley’s aunt, Councilwoman Delores Zurita.

No arrests were made.

Dave Demerjian, head of the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division, declined to say whether more searches are imminent or when the investigation might end.

In addition to the district attorney’s probe, the FBI has interviewed city employees and community leaders about Bradley and his associates. Although authorities refused to confirm federal involvement, two city employees--speaking on condition of anonymity--said they had been asked to testify before a federal grand jury.

The search warrants seek a variety of city documents dating from July 1, 1999, when Rahh joined the City Council and gave Bradley a governing three-vote majority.

During their time in power, members of Bradley’s administration hired friends and relatives, gave a controversial no-bid contract to a trash hauler with a history of passing bribes to previous Compton leaders, and handed out hundreds of payments, just under the $5,000 reporting limit, to contractors.

Bradley lost his bid for a third four-year term as mayor in June, but Zurita and Rahh remain on the council.

Bradley’s camp blasted the searches as illegal. They argued that Eric Perrodin, who defeated Bradley in the June mayoral runoff, arranged for the investigation as payback for Bradley’s lawsuit challenging the election results as fraudulent. The election case is expected to go to trial this fall.

“This search of Mr. Bradley’s home comes at a time that is awful suspicious, in light of the evidence we have showing voter fraud,” said Milton Grimes, Bradley’s attorney. “I hope this is not retaliation.”

Bradley had no comment Wednesday; a reporter who approached the home was threatened and chased away by two family members.

Rahh called the search “a futile exercise.” Bradley’s sister, school board member Carol Bradley Jordan, said the district attorney’s investigation is “a smoke screen put up to distract from the election fraud committed by Eric Perrodin.”

The searches mark another wave of scrutiny for Compton, where a federal investigation led in the mid-1990s to former Mayor Walter R. Tucker III being convicted of extortion and income tax charges and former Councilwoman Patricia Moore being found guilty of extortion and failure to file tax returns.

Some community leaders said Wednesday that they feared the current probes would further sully the town’s reputation.

“The message again is: If you want to do something, come to Compton,” said Jacqueline Watkins, publisher of the weekly Compton Bulletin newspaper. “It seems like the city’s always in a mess, and we can never get out.”

Perrodin, himself a prosecutor at the district attorney’s office in Downey, said: “If there are some criminal activities going on, I want to get to the bottom of it. If there’s smoke, there’s usually a little bit of fire.”

A district attorney’s spokeswoman said Wednesday’s action was part of an investigation that began two years ago.

The searches started shortly after 7 a.m. at City Hall. There, investigators examined the offices of the city manager, controller, treasurer and clerk, along with the desks of Zurita, Rahh and eight other staffers, mostly receptionists. City Hall, sealed off Wednesday, is scheduled to reopen today.

Also searched were the homes of Bradley, Zurita, Rahh and former City Manager John Johnson.

Two sources close to the probe said that investigators are looking broadly at city finances but that an immediate area of interest was city officials’ possible use of municipal credit cards for personal expenses or inappropriate travel. The warrants ask for the confiscation of “safes, purses and wallets” belonging to Rahh, Zurita or former Assistant City Manager Laurence H. Adams.

Other officials whose homes and offices were searched did not return phone calls.

The district attorney’s scrutiny apparently dates to 1999, when the City Council removed Police Chief Hourie Taylor and longtime Compton Police Capt. Percy Perrodin (the mayor’s brother). Last year, Bradley led the effort that replaced Compton’s police force with county sheriff’s deputies.

Taylor and Percy Perrodin responded by urging outside investigation of Bradley’s administration and by working to elect Eric Perrodin as mayor. During this spring’s mayoral campaign, several candidates running against Bradley publicly asked for the FBI and district attorney to investigate city finances. Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux filed an FBI complaint earlier this year saying she had received an anonymous threat because of her criticism of the mayor.

Patricia Corona, a city employee, told The Times last month that she was interviewed by local and federal investigators this summer. She said she was pressed for any details about the travel habits and financial lives of the former mayor.

A group of ministers, including Father Stan Bosch of Our Lady of Victory Church, also requested that law enforcement officials look at the town. Bosch said he was subsequently interviewed both by district attorney’s investigators and the FBI.

“We want to hold people accountable who are in positions of power,” Bosch said Wednesday.

In addition to the homes and city offices, a search warrant was served at Compton College.

The connections between Bradley’s administration and the college run deep. Rahh teaches at the college, and Bradley was considered for a consultant’s contract there this summer as a fund-raiser and major event coordinator but was not hired. The college has also drawn citizen complaints over its lobbying contract with former Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alatorre. That contract was canceled last week.

Faculty members said that at least one FBI agent accompanied district attorney’s investigators in their search of the college administration building. According to a copy obtained by The Times, the warrant allows for the search of the offices and desks of 12 administrators there, including President Ulis Williams and his top deputy, Ronald Chatman.

The focus there, too, appeared to be on Rahh, permitting a personal search of the councilman and college instructor. In confirming the search Wednesday, college spokesman Stan Myles called the probe “some kind of investigation with Amen Rahh.”

“But work is still going on like any other day,” Miles added. “If you went to class here, you wouldn’t know it was happening.”

*

Staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this story.