Los Angeles Times, CA
Jan 29 2007
State probes group tied to L.A. County sheriff
Investigators are focusing on the body’s charitable fundraising. Many
of its members have donated to Lee Baca’s campaigns.
By Stuart Pfeifer, Times Staff Writer
January 29, 2007
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 Nuñez (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.