2nd Policeman Held, City Official Sought in Yacht Theft Probe

A second veteran police officer was arrested Friday and an assistant city attorney was being sought on perjury charges as Los Angeles police detectives widened their investigation of an alleged insurance fraud and yacht theft ring, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said.

Detectives also arrested a self-employed insurance investigator in the case on Friday and booked him on suspicion of paying to have his wife murdered in 1980. Arthur Gayle Smith, 55, was taken into custody without incident at his home in Alhambra.

Police have alleged that Smith was a close associate of William E. Leasure, a Los Angeles police officer who was jailed last year. Leasure, 40, is facing charges that he and a convicted bank robber, Robert D. Kuns of Newport Beach, stole 11 pleasure boats worth $1.5 million, refitted them and then sold them to unsuspecting buyers in Northern California while collecting on insurance policies on the vessels. Most of the boats were taken from slips in Southland harbors, investigators said.

The assistant city attorney sought Friday for allegedly perjuring herself during the investigation is Leasure’s wife, Betsy Mogul, 40. She was out of town Friday and arrangements were being made for her to surrender, Gates said at a press conference.

Members of the city attorney’s office said they could not remember a staff lawyer ever having been charged in a felony investigation.

Gates identified the officer arrested Friday as Ralph M. Gerard, 40, Leasure’s former partner at the LAPD’s Central Traffic Division.

Gerard, a 14year veteran of the force, was arrested at his home in Hacienda Heights and booked on two counts of receiving stolen property and two counts of insurance fraud. His bail was set at $5,000.

“It’s hard to really understand why a police officer would get involved in felony crimes, but it would appear that greed is probably a basic reason,” Gates told reporters.

No other police officers are believed to be involved, the chief said.

The charges against Gerard, Kuns, Leasure, Mogul and Smith stem from an investigation that began in May, 1986, when Oakland police officers arrested Kuns and Leasure as they allegedly attempted to deliver a stolen 41-foot yacht to two innocent and unsuspecting buyers in Richmond, Calif.

Authorities in Contra Costa County, where Kuns remains in jail on $1-million bail, have charged him with nine counts of grand theft and one count of receiving stolen property. On Friday, Los Angeles authorities said they will ask the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to file two additional counts of grand theft and one of insurance fraud against him.

Leasure, who is in protective custody at the Los Angeles County Central Jail on $500,000 bail, was charged last year in Contra Costa County with seven counts of grand theft and one of receiving stolen property. He also was charged last year in Los Angeles with receiving stolen property in connection with two cars allegedly found at his Northridge home, and evidence of a third.

Detectives in Los Angeles said Friday they plan to seek three more counts of grand theft and one of insurance fraud against Leasure in connection with the yacht thefts.

Smith, meanwhile, was booked on one count of receiving stolen property and held without bail on suspicion of murder.

Gates said that because of Smith’s association with Leasure, investigators are focusing on Leasure’s possible role in the murder of Smith’s wife. Ann Smith was shot to death on May 29, 1980, at her beauty shop in the 5900 block of North Figueroa Street. However, Gates would not disclose why detectives think Leasure might be linked to Ann Smith’s killing.

Authorities have said they believe that Leasure was involved in at least two other Los Angeles area slayings.

Detectives suspect that the 17-year department veteran arranged the 1977 murder of Gilberto Cervantes, a San Gabriel tortilla factory owner. Four years later, he drove the getaway car in the slaying of Cervantes’ stepson, Anthony Delos Reyes, detectives have alleged. Reyes is believed to have hired Leasure to arrange Cervantes’ death so that Reyes could inherit the tortilla business.

Leasure has not been formally charged in either the 1977 or 1981 killings, but Gates said Friday that the investigations are continuing.

Mogul, Leasure’s wife, is accused of having having lied to the California Department of Motor Vehicles when she registered a 1971 Mercedes-Benz that she had purchased from Smith, the insurance investigator. Mogul falsely claimed that Smith was her father to avoid paying sales taxes on the car--a felony perjury, Gates alleged.

Under state law, car sales between relatives are not taxable.

A USC law school graduate, Mogul went to work for the city attorney in 1974 and has since worked in both its criminal and civil branches, records show. In 1985, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for city attorney, winning 1% of the vote.

Last month, she was transferred to the Department of Water and Power where she continues to work as an assistant city attorney.

Robert Kuns’ sister, Kay Kuns, was a deputy city attorney from December, 1976, until her resignation in January, 1979. Investigators have said that Kay Kuns, who now has a private law practice in Santa Ynez, introduced the Leasures to her brother, who had spent two years in federal prison for the 1973 armed robbery of a San Diego bank.

Gates said that between 1983 and 1986, Robert Kuns and Leasure stole vessels moored throughout the Southern California area, including Newport Beach and Dana Point. In one case, he said, they allegedly stole a boat, sold it and then stole it again.

Gates said that Leasure and Smith kept a stolen, 51-foot sailboat moored at a marina in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles Harbor, while Leasure and Gerard kept a 41-foot trawler at a Long Beach slip owned by Mogul and Leasure.

Gerard also allegedly used a stolen 37-foot trawler that he insured and then falsely reported stolen, Gates said. Leasure, Gerard and Kuns then shared in the insurance money, according to the chief.

Court records show that Gerard has been sued twice for allegedly using excessive force as a police officer. In 1978, he was one of five members of the Police Department sued by a South-Central Los Angeles woman, Ethel M. Ridley, on charges of battery, false imprisonment and negligence. The officers won the case in arbitration.

In 1979, Gerard and another officer were sued for allegedly roughing up a Los Angeles man at the downtown Greyhound bus station. The man, Herman Lee Marks, died before the case went to trial.

Times staff writers Terry Pristin and George Ramos contributed to this story.