State probes group tied to sheriff

A state attorney general’s investigation of a private group associated with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is focusing on its charitable fundraising, according to documents obtained by The Times.

Members of the Homeland Security Support Unit -- made up of local businessmen, many of them contributors to Baca’s political campaigns -- have been asked to supply the attorney general with evidence of any payments made to the group or its leaders.

Baca suspended the unit last year amid concern about identification cards that had been issued to members, a department spokesman said.

The cards included Baca’s name and made the group appear to be an official part of the Sheriff’s Department.

The attorney general’s office, which oversees charity organizations in California, has sent group members questionnaires that ask whether they donated to Baca’s group or to two similar civilian law enforcement support groups in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The questionnaire, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, also asks for copies of any checks that were written to the groups or their directors.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general declined to discuss the investigation. The agency has the authority to pursue monetary damages from charities that mismanage contributions.

The Homeland Security Support Unit held fundraising events but was not registered as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, records show. Contributors at those events were asked to make checks payable to Armenian Vision Outreach, a nonprofit that is also a subject of the investigation, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

Gary Nalbandian, owner of a Glendora tire store, served as director of Baca’s Homeland Security Support Unit. Before he was named to that position, he had been instrumental in raising political contributions for Baca.

The attorney general’s questionnaire asks members whether they wrote checks or paid cash to Nalbandian or assistant directors Gary Jerjerian and Ramzi Bader while “believing that all or a portion of the money was to be used for charitable purposes, for example: for scholarships, grants, orphanages [or] equipment for law enforcement.”

Nalbandian declined last week to discuss details of the investigation.

“The attorney general [investigators] are the experts. If there is something, they’ll find it,” Nalbandian said. “I have nothing to talk about.”

Baca said the homeland security group, which included many members from the Armenian American community, was intended to provide tips about potential terror threats and assistance with translating foreign-language documents.

The group was one of more than a dozen citizens’ groups that Baca launched to help the Sheriff’s Department reach out to the community. It was not incorporated or authorized by anyone other than Baca.

The attorney general’s office, which opened the financial review last fall, also is preparing an opinion on whether law enforcement officials in California can issue souvenir badges or identification cards to civilians. State law makes it a misdemeanor to distribute badges to the public that could be confused with those issued to sworn law enforcement officers.

In addition to Baca’s homeland security unit, Nalbandian launched the civilian Bureau of Justice for San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Mike Ramos and the Sheriff’s Executive Council for Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle.

Baca, Ramos and Doyle accepted thousands of dollars in political contributions from members of the groups. Ramos and Doyle issued badges to members but later revoked them.

Baca did not issue badges; members of his group received laminated identification cards.

Critics said the badges and identification cards appeared to be rewards for political contributions and had the potential for abuse. Two members told The Times last year that they flashed their badges to law enforcement officials, one to gain access to a secure area at Bob Hope Airport, the other when he became the subject of a criminal investigation.

Raffi Mesrobian said he displayed both his Los Angeles County sheriff’s ID card and Riverside County sheriff’s executive council badge when state agents served a search warrant at his Glendale naturopathy office during a 2005 investigation. He was charged last year with grand theft, fraud and practicing medicine without a license. Mesrobian pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department opened an internal affairs investigation of Nalbandian, who is also a volunteer reserve deputy, more than six months ago and has not decided whether to suspend him while the inquiries are pending, department spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Nalbandian also holds a sheriff’s concealed weapons permit. The department has not tried to revoke that.

“The Sheriff’s Department wanted to wait until the conclusion of our own investigation and the attorney general’s inquiry and then take it from there,” Whitmore said of the concealed weapons permit.

Concern about official-looking badges escalated last month when a Compton man was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a state official after flashing a badge that had been issued by the office of Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton). The man allegedly showed the badge, which identified him as an “assembly commissioner,” to Redondo Beach police officers who were attempting to question him about playing loud music.

In response to that incident, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) this month banned the distribution of Assembly badges to the public.

The attorney general’s office, responding to a request from the Riverside County district attorney, is expected to issue a legal opinion this spring about whether sheriffs and police chiefs can issue badges to the public as Doyle and Ramos did.

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stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com