The campaign committee of Lt. Gov.-elect Michael S. Steele paid more than $50,000 to a Washington temporary employment agency that is at the center of an investigation into alleged illegal payments to Election Day campaign workers.

The disclosure of the payment in recently filed campaign finance reports comes as an investigation by the state prosecutor's office is moving toward completion.

Several attorneys who represent people affiliated with the GOP campaign said last week that they expect criminal charges to be filed - though all insist their clients did nothing wrong.

"It's moving right along," State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said when asked about the status of the probe. While declining to discuss details, the prosecutor said he expected to complete his work within two weeks.

If charges are filed, they would likely come under a state law that bars the payment of so-called walking-around money to Election Day poll workers. Under the law, each violation can bring up to a one-year jail sentence. The law also provides for civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation.

Campaign finance reports show that Steele's campaign committee paid $52,640 on Nov. 2 to a company listed as Alternative Resource Cooperative, a temporary employment agency in Washington.

Paul E. Schurick, a spokesman for Steele and Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said that money was supposed to cover work done before Election Day, including distributing literature over the weekend.

"No one was hired to work Election Day," Schurick said.

Asked whether that was what actually happened, Schurick said: "Apparently not."

State election law banned walking-around money - once a staple of Maryland politics - in the late 1970s. The law makes it a misdemeanor to distribute or accept money for Election Day work, with the exception of reimbursement for food or telephone calls to voters.

Began with Democrats

The investigation into walking-around money began after the Democratic Party reported plans to pay workers up to $100 to canvass neighborhoods on behalf of congressional candidates. The party was forced to change its plan to ensure paid workers only encouraged people to vote, without advocating for any political parties or candidates.

The day after the election, as reporters, police and an investigator from Montanarelli's office looked on, nearly 200 residents of a Washington homeless shelter were paid. The workers said they had manned polls in Prince George's County on Election Day, handing out campaign literature for Ehrlich and Steele.

Police had been called to the Community for Creative Non-Violence on Second Street N.W. when angry residents of the shelter began demanding the pay they said they had been promised the previous night. Eventually the workers lined up in front of a van and were paid $150 apiece.

The temporary employment agency hired by the campaign - Alternative Resource Center Inc. - was incorporated as a nonprofit, and its charter was revoked more than a year ago because of its failure to file required annual reports.

Contacted at the company office last week, Shirley Brookins declined to comment and said questions relating to Ehrlich campaign work were being handled by an attorney whom she declined to identify.

Brookins, according to some of the Election Day workers, was present at the shelter Nov. 6 while payments were distributed.

Though most of the homeless workers were paid, Judith Conti - an attorney with the DC Justice Employment Center, a Washington advocacy group - said she had been told that about 10 workers weren't paid.

She said her group would be willing to represent the unpaid workers but has been unable to identify them.

Arthur Frank, the attorney for the Democrats for Ehrlich Committee, said the committee itself did nothing wrong, though he acknowledged that some individuals "may have acted overzealously."

Frank said it was his understanding that those individuals who had done so had admitted it to state investigators.

Kenneth Ravenell, the attorney for Ehrlich's Prince George's County coordinator, Wayne M. Clarke, said his client had done nothing wrong and was cooperating with the investigation.

Others whose names have surfaced in the investigation include Steven Martin and Rashida Hogg, both of whom were paid by the Ehrlich campaign committee a few weeks before the Nov. 5 election. Neither could be reached for comment.

Election Day workers said Hogg and Martin were involved in recruiting and instructing workers on their assignments.

Also identified by the workers was W. Eric Cloud, a Washington attorney, who was present when workers were paid Nov. 6. Cloud did not respond to a request for comment.

Baltimore attorney William H. Murphy Jr. said he is representing a client involved in the investigation, whom he declined to identify.

Student workers

In addition to the homeless workers, several dozen college, high school and junior high school students were recruited to hand out Ehrlich literature on Election Day in Prince George's. Unlike the homeless, however, the students did not get paid as promised.

The students and their parents also have been interviewed by investigators from Montanarelli's office.