Playgirl Model Arrested on Sex Charge : Investigation: The bodybuilder is accused of pimping and pandering. A woman alleged to be an employee is also arrested.

ORANGE —  A bodybuilder once featured in a Playgirl magazine centerfold was arrested Thursday on suspicion of pimping and pandering, following an undercover investigation of an out-call service with 25 to 30 employees, police said.

John Albert LaForme, 28, also was booked on suspicion of having steroids, Sgt. Barry Weinstein said.

“This was a sophisticated, high-class operation” operated out of LaForme’s Orange apartment for the past four years, Weinstein said. “We think he was working throughout the county.”

Undercover investigators met with LaForme and arranged to have sex with one of his employees, Weinstein said. Dina Bierman, an employee of LaForme’s Body Brokers, then went to an Orange motel where she solicited an undercover officer to have sex for money, police said. She was arrested on suspicion of prostitution and later released.

Police officers then went to Body Brokers, in the 2300 block of North Orange Olive Road, where they arrested LaForme and found the steroids, Weinstein said.

LaForme was booked into Orange County Jail and later released on his own recognizance, according to jail officials.

LaForme recently appeared on a national television talk show, Weinstein said, which featured a panel of men “discussing different philosophies on dating.”

He also appeared in the centerfold of the December, 1993, issue of Playgirl.

“We like to think we keep Orange pretty free from this activity,” Weinstein said. “This is not a common thing that occurs in Orange. We don’t think there’s a lot of it, and we’re doing everything we possibly can to stop it and prosecute to the maximum extent of the law.”