CITY BADGES SEIZED DURING RAIDS OF EIDC.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

badges and documentation purporting to grant arrest powers were seized Thursday by district attorney's investigators as part of the probe of the controversial Entertainment Industry Development Corp. and its former president, Cody Cluff.

``Among the items recovered were two city of Los Angeles badges and film permits from 1997 to 2002,'' said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.

The searches under court-approved warrants were part of an expanding criminal investigation, and followed a series of searches in September after disclosures that Cluff billed more than $500,000 in expenses and the EIDC contributed tens of thousands of dollars to many of its board members' political campaigns.

In November, the Pittsburgh Film Office, and the home of its director, Dawn Keezer, with whom Cluff was romantically linked, were also searched. The EIDC, a nonprofit corporation created in 1995 by the city and county to handle filming permits and to stem runaway production, contributed $10,000 to the Pittsburgh office's fund-raising efforts.

Sources said the city badges are significant in attempting to establish that the EIDC was operating as a public entity - disputed by EIDC officials and their lawyers. Earlier search warrant affidavits allege Cluff misappropriated EIDC public funds for personal use.

``These are official badges with the city of Los Angeles seal. They say, 'Film officer,' and they cite arrest powers,'' a source said.

``The key part in recovering the badges is it shows that while they might say they're a private agency, they're carrying city badges and identifying themselves as public officers for the city of Los Angeles.''

Cluff could not be reached for comment. Darryl Seif, EIDC vice president and general manager of operations, whose badge was seized as well, also could not be reached for comment.

Cluff's lawyer, Mark Werksman, denied that the badges were ``official,'' and said they had no relevance to the case.

``They're scraping at the bottom of the barrel looking for evidence if this is what it's come to,'' Werksman said. ``Clearly the EIDC didn't believe it had arrest power.

``I don't think they carried the badges around anyway.''

Werksman said he had not seen the badges, nor seen any accompanying documentation, and didn't know why they had been created. But he disputed assertions that they conferred public standing on what he contended is ``absolutely a private entity.''

``The existence of a badge doesn't confer any public status on you,'' Werksman said. ``It's a matter of law, what's in the (city) charter, how (an entity) is governed as an organization.''

Mark Holscher, with the firm O'Melveny & Myers and representing the EIDC, said the agency's status as a private entity is established by its tax filings, articles of incorporation and legal status.

``A badge does not turn a private company into a public entity,'' Holscher said.

Keith Comrie, Los Angeles' former city administrative officer and the EIDC's special consultant, said the agency is ``fully cooperating'' with the District Attorney's Office as well as with city and outside auditors.

Comrie said that in his experience with the city, the use of city badges was ``restricted very heavily.'' But he said he couldn't be certain Cluff hadn't received some kind of special authorization.

According to sources, the EIDC obtained at least three city badges about seven years ago after writing a letter to the manufacturer, informing the company that it was a contractor to the city, and therefore had a legitimate right to purchase them.

The EIDC was created out of Los Angeles city and county agencies to expedite issuing permits for location filming in the area and to combat runaway film and TV production. EIDC officials told the badge manufacturers that their city predecessors had carried the badges, a source said.

``They said they needed the same identification in the field,'' a source said.

Comrie said that unless there was a special provision he was unaware of, ``generally they're not issued other than to city departments for official city use.''

A spokesman for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said no one in the office had seen the EIDC badges, and that the city attorney only authorizes badges for its own prosecutors and inspectors.

``We have no idea where these came from,'' said spokesman Eric Moses.

The raids began at dawn Thursday, including at Cluff's home in the San Gabriel Valley, Seif's home in the Hollywood Hills, the agency's Hollywood office and two storage warehouses. An out-of-town bank also was named on the search warrant affidavit.

Cluff's badge was recovered at his home and Seif's at the EIDC's office, sources said.

Investigators also seized hundreds of film permits - issued between 1997 and 2002 - from the agency's headquarters.