EX-PROSECUTOR EXPECTED TO PLEAD TO FRAUD.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

A former federal prosecutor who admitted in a plea agreement that he pocketed more than $100,000 in cash and jewelry from government informants is expected to plead guilty in court next week, officials said Monday.

Andrew S. Pitt, 37, was in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday for arraignment on fraud and conflict-of-interest charges. He did not enter a plea but is expected to plead guilty when he returns to court June 16, officials said.

His attorney, Charles Wehner, could not be reached for comment but has said that Pitt mixed his work for the government with his business investments.

``It's a tragic situation for which he's paying a huge price,'' Wehner had said.

Pitt resigned from the U.S. Attorney's Office on May 30 and he could face up to five years in prison.

Pitt's cases included the prosecution of Rubin Gottesman and his Van Nuys videotape store, X-Citement Video, for distributing tapes of then-underage porn star Traci Lords.

U.S. Attorney Nora Manella, who runs the Los Angeles area U.S. Attorney's Office, said in a statement that she is ``appalled'' by Pitt's actions.

The office has removed itself from the investigation.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said there is no indication that the allegations have compromised any of the cases Pitt handled.

Pitt has signed a plea agreement in which he admits accepting cash, loans, a sapphire bracelet and a diamond from government informants while working on securities fraud investigations.

He has also admitted to depositing the money into his personal accounts and attempting to gain a lenient sentence or, in one case, a postponement of the date on which a government informant was scheduled to begin his sentence.

The incidents occurred from 1993 to 1995 and included one incident in which Pitt told an informant he was seizing $33,000 from an illegal stock deal when, in reality, the money went into Pitt's personal account.