Volunteer Accused of Molesting Youths on Weekend Trips : Abuse: A Van Nuys man made contacts through three organizations. He faces seven counts involving several boys ages 7 to 11.

A Van Nuys man who worked as a volunteer for at least three youth organizations has been charged with molesting three boys and is suspected of sexually abusing four others, Los Angeles police said Friday.

Landreth Harrison, 53, is the target of a widening investigation by detectives who searched his Van Nuys trailer home and found lists of children’s names, forms from parents giving him permission to take their children on trips and photos of children on weekend excursions, police said Friday.

“This has been going on a long time,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Dale Barraclough.

Harrison, a cashier at a Northridge hardware store, was arrested April 19 after a pizza delivery man reported seeing naked children in his Van Nuys trailer. Neighbors said they saw boys camping out in a tent on the property or leaving on excursions with Harrison nearly every weekend for almost two years.

Harrison was charged last week with five counts of molestation and two counts of sexual assault involving three boys ages 7 to 11. Detectives also plan to seek charges involving four other boys, including two he met as a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club in Pacoima, based on new evidence, authorities said.

Barraclough said that after Harrison was fired from the Boys and Girls Club last May, he worked as a volunteer from June to August at a youth center in Harbor City. A preliminary check with officials there found no reports of problems with Harrison but the investigation is continuing, Barraclough said.

He would not identify the third youth organization where Harrison volunteered.

Harrison was being held in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $210,000 bail and was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the charges May 22 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Harrison was dismissed by the Boys and Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley a year ago when officials learned he took two club members, ages 11 and 12, on a weekend camping trip that was authorized by the boys’ parents but not by the club, Executive Director LeRoy Chase said Friday.

Harrison, who had worked as a volunteer at the club since September, 1989, had earlier asked, and was denied, permission to take children on the overnight trip, Chase said.

Club officials learned of the camping trip last May through a phone call from a Santa Barbara store clerk who saw the two boys, wearing club T-shirts, come into the store with Harrison, smelled alcohol on Harrison’s breath and became suspicious, Chase said.

He said he contacted the commander of the Police Department’s Foothill Division, Capt. Tim McBride, and on McBride’s advice questioned Harrison, the boys and their parents. Officials determined that Harrison had not abused the boys, and police did not investigate, Chase and McBride said Friday.

Chase insisted that officials took appropriate action by dismissing Harrison and alerting parents that he was no longer affiliated with the club. The case has prompted club officials to review their screening procedures for volunteers, which Chase acknowledged were “not as formal as we would have liked them to be.”