LAPD, Sheriff Probe Possible Officer Ties to Call Girl Ring : Inquiry: Internal affairs investigators are looking into whether off-duty personnel acted as drivers or provided security for accused madam Heidi Fleiss, sources say.

Internal affairs investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are conducting inquiries to discover if any of their officers worked with upscale prostitution rings, law enforcement sources said Wednesday.

The conduct of at least one deputy and one LAPD officer has fallen under scrutiny, sources said. Although the accusations against them have not been made public, the same sources said both investigations are looking into whether off-duty officers may have acted as drivers or provided security for Heidi Fleiss, the so-called madam to the stars.

It could not immediately be determined what prompted the internal investigations, which appear to have been under way for several months.

“All I can say is that we’ve looked into personnel matters,” said LAPD Sgt. Steven K. Zimmerman, an internal affairs officer. “Whatever we developed is still being reviewed by the command staff.”

Zimmerman declined to comment further. Commander David J. Gascon, chief of the LAPD’s community affairs group, said only that one LAPD officer has been investigated. His case is under review, Gascon said.

“The department has examined a personnel matter,” Gascon said. “Our best information is that there’s been no finding of any kind of misconduct by a department employee. That’s a preliminary finding, and it will be reviewed by the appropriate commanding officer.”

Gascon said he could not provide the name of the officer or the alleged offense. Other sources said the investigation was directed at an officer in the LAPD’s West Los Angeles division.

Fleiss, 27, pleaded not guilty Monday to felony pandering and narcotics charges in the wake of a vice sting that resulted in her June 9 arrest at her Benedict Canyon home. Last week, police also arrested Fleiss’ ex-boyfriend, Ivan Nagy, on suspicion of pandering.

Police have accused Fleiss of running one of the city’s most exclusive call girl rings. The operation that resulted in her arrest involved at least three law enforcement agencies--the LAPD, Beverly Hills police and the enforcement arm of the state attorney general’s office. Court records also mention peripheral involvement of officers from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Although sources say a deputy is under investigation, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that he could not confirm the existence of an investigation.

“I honestly wouldn’t know,” Deputy Rich Erickson said. “It sounds to me like it would be an internal affairs investigation, and that’s not something that the whole department would be privy to.”

Sources said that shortly after she was arrested in June, Fleiss was interviewed by investigators from LAPD’s Internal Affairs division. Zimmerman was said to have conducted that interview, but he declined to comment on what he asked Fleiss and what information, if any, she provided.

Fleiss’ lawyer, Anthony Brooklier, also declined to comment on the internal affairs inquiry and what role his client may have played in it.

In addition to the question of whether officers provided security or chauffeur services for people now accused of pandering, one source familiar with the LAPD investigation said he believed that internal affairs officers were attempting to determine if Fleiss’ telephone was illegally tapped.

Several tapes have surfaced in connection with the inquiries, but police say they do not have the tapes and could not use them as evidence even if they did. Authorities say the tapes appear to have been made illegally and disavow any involvement with such taping.

While declining to comment on the specifics of the investigations, longtime LAPD officers said internal inquiries are relatively common sidelights to high-publicity cases. The department is obliged to investigate any complaint, and some officers suggested that the current inquiry may reflect the department’s extraordinary sensitivity about the national exposure that has followed the case.

“In something like this, the department looks inward,” one LAPD officer said. “With so much notoriety . . . I’m sure they’re looking into whether our guys are all clean.”