Fund-Raising Skirted Edge of Law, Police Group Was Told

A group representing itself as a police officers’ association, which is under investigation for allegedly engaging in fraudulent fund-raising activities, was warned more than a year ago that its money-raising practices were skirting the edge of the law.

In an opinion dated Oct. 2, 1986, a hearing officer for the Los Angeles Police Commission concluded that the fund-raising techniques of the Police Officers Assn. Ball of Los Angeles County Inc. appeared to violate both the Los Angeles Municipal Code and the California Business and Professional Code.

Furthermore, Officer John C. Horan wrote, “the sole activity of the organization apparently is the promotion of weight-lifting skills” for group members at a 1,080-square-foot gymnasium the organization had rented in San Dimas.

Rather than supporting charitable causes, Horan concluded, the bulk of the money the group raised “. . . goes to maintain the gym and provide funds for travel, food and lodging for participating in (athletic) events throughout California.”

Funds Estimate

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Julie Sergojan estimated Thursday that the organization has taken in as much as $300,000 in the last 30 months.

Noting that the group’s president, David B. Deluca, declined to provide a membership roster or disclose details of the organization’s finances, Horan wrote that it appeared that the group was created solely to benefit Deluca and a small group of his friends. Deluca has claimed the group actually has more than 200 members.

Neither Deluca nor his attorneys returned a reporter’s telephone calls Friday.

Despite Horan’s conclusions, the Police Commission last February overruled the hearing officer and voted to allow the organization to solicit contributions within the City of Los Angeles.

“Basically, we had no other choice,” said commission secretary Bill Cowdin, who said the panel relied on the advice of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. “It’s a lot easier to take away a permit (to solicit) . . . than to refuse to give it.”

The deputy city attorney who advised the commission on the matter was not available Friday, and a prosecutor who works in the same unit said the office would have no immediate comment on why it advised the commission to grant the permit.

The district attorney’s office is considering filing criminal charges against Deluca, a former police officer for the Southern California Rapid Transit District who now works in the RTD’s inspector general’s office, a deputy district attorney said Thursday.

In an affidavit filed in court to support a request for a search warrant, a district attorney’s investigator said Deluca’s group represents itself as a charitable, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, when in fact it is not.

The association has employed at least three “boiler-room” telephone banks to sell tickets to a series of variety shows, wrote Investigator Ron Santee. Among other things, the telephone solicitors have falsely represented themselves as peace officers, the affidavit said.

Legal Name

Although the group’s legal name is the Police Officers Assn. Ball of Los Angeles County, it has used other names in solicitation letters, including Los Angeles County Police Officers Assn., according to documents filed in court.

That has drawn protests from the Peace Officers Assn. of Los Angeles County, a 50-year-old organization that claims 3,000 policemen, sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel as members.

“We get the complaints,” said Brenda Myron, the association’s business manager.

Deluca’s group has “no phone number, so when (the public) looks them up in the phone book, they find our name, assuming we’re the same agency,” she said.

“I resent (Deluca) soliciting funds,” said Santa Monica Police Chief, James F. Keane, a past president of the county peace officer’s group. “We don’t do that.”