• A law firm involved in L.A. County’s $4-billion sex abuse settlement asked for a lawsuit to be dismissed after a Times investigation uncovered two allegations of fraud.
• Two more plaintiffs have now come forward to say they were told to invent their claims in exchange for cash.
• Downtown LA Law Group, the firm that represents the plaintiffs, has denied any involvement with recruiters who allegedly paid plaintiffs to sue.

It felt like the kind of thing that must happen in Hollywood all the time: a hundred bucks to be a movie extra.

Austin Beagle, 31, and Nevada Barker, 30, said they were trying to sign up for food stamps this spring when someone offered them a background role outside a county social services office in Long Beach. They thought the gig seemed intriguing, albeit a bit unusual.

The offer came not from a casting director, but a man hawking free cellphones. The filming location was, oddly enough, a law firm in downtown Los Angeles.

Maybe this was how actors were recruited here, they figured. The couple had recently moved from the remote ranching town of Stinnett in the Texas panhandle, and the recruiter seemed to appreciate their Southern drawl. They hopped on a bus, excited to make $200 between them.

“They said we’d be extras,” said Beagle, who was unemployed at the time. “But when we got to the office, that’s not what it was at all.”

The couple said they arrived at the lobby of Downtown LA Law Group. A Times investigation published earlier this month found...

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