Off-Duty Officers Linked to Illegal Bingo Activities : Inquiry: Police order an investigation of witnesses’ allegations that lawmen and their wives received favors and pay from the Woodland Hills operation.

A spokesman said Thursday that the Los Angeles Police Department will initiate an internal inquiry into accusations that off-duty officers and their wives were aware of alleged illegal activities at the city’s biggest bingo parlor and enjoyed financial favors there.

Witnesses testifying at a hearing Thursday afternoon that could lead to the revocation of the bingo license of Identity Inc. in Woodland Hills told a reporter outside the hearing room that the wives of two officers were on the payroll of the bingo operator. They said the spouses of other officers got to play for free at the games. All the involved officers were working off-duty as security guards at the bingo parlor.

Police spokesman William Booth said in an interview with The Times, “There’s an appearance of possible impropriety here that warrants an inquiry by the department.” He said he would “initiate an appropriate preliminary inquiry” today.

But the police officers are expected to testify later that they saw nothing improper. An attorney for the bingo parlor said the accusers are lying and stole money.

The allegations were made in interviews with The Times by three witnesses who testified Thursday on behalf of the city’s Department of Social Services, which is seeking to revoke the bingo license of the nonprofit corporation.

The charity raises funds from its bingo games--conducted three times a week--to help disabled people. City records show Identity’s bingo proceeds since 1982, when the organization first employed the game of chance for fund raising, have amounted to $28.7 million. That is 19.7% of the total bingo proceeds earned by all other charities in the city over the same period.

The city’s complaint against Identity states that the nonprofit corporation violated state law by paying its workers from its bingo proceeds. As part of an effort to keep bingo charitable, state law bars bingo operators from paying their workers.

One former Identity worker, Sylvia Dean, who also sat on the group’s board of directors, testified that she was paid $900 a week in cash by Edith Ryan, Identity’s founder and president.

Ryan has denied that she paid her workers and says that she is the victim of a plot by disgruntled former workers. Her attorneys, during cross-examination Thursday, accused Ryan’s accusers of lying and stealing money from her--not getting paid by her.

The city’s case against Identity does not implicate the officers or their wives in any wrongdoing--rather the witnesses have done so on their own.

Asked if he was aware of allegations that police officers may have known about improprieties, Robert Burns, Social Services Department general manager, said, “No comment.”

The charity, which was the target of an unsuccessful license revocation proceeding in 1984, plans to call as defense witnesses several officers who worked off-duty as security guards, according to Ryan’s attorneys.

The license revocation hearing will be a “big credibility contest” between Ryan and her police officer allies and Ryan’s accusers, said J. Patrick Francis, Ryan’s other attorney.

But the license question may eventually take a back seat to the kinds of allegations made Thursday by the city’s three main witnesses--all former Identity workers.

Cindy Houseman, one of the three, told The Times that she and her co-workers talked about getting paid within hearing range of the officers. “We talked about it in front of them,” Houseman said.

“They couldn’t help but know,” Dean told The Times. “They knew that ‘Go get your paperwork’ was the code word for picking up our pay.”

Dean also testified under oath that there was “constant” talk about the illegal payments among the workers, including Sharon Brosnon, the wife of Officer Bob Brosnon.

Sharon Brosnon worked at Identity’s bingo games as did Mindy Brazner, wife of Officer Steve Brazner. City records show Mindy Brazner and Sharon Brosnon worked at Identity as “volunteers” while their husbands were working as security guards for the charity.

Outside the hearing, Houseman and Deborah Basham said they had seen both Brazner and Brosnon being paid.

Thirteen current and retired Los Angeles officers were named by the city’s witnesses as having worked for Identity. It is legal for a bingo operator to contract to pay for security from bingo proceeds. And there is no law or Police Department rule that forbids off-duty officers from working as security guards at bingo games.

However, police spokesman Booth said his concern was whether Police Department personnel knew of possible illegal payments.

Dean also told The Times that she was instructed by Ryan not to charge admission to the wives of other officers who were also working on Identity’s security detail.

Deborah Basham, another city witness, said “all the security wives played for free, and all the volunteers wives or husbands played for free too.”