The Nation - News from Dec. 30, 1987
A former New Jersey state senator who avoided prison by faking a fatal scuba accident was ordered to begin serving a seven-year sentence for extortion. David Friedland, acting as his own lawyer during the hearing in Newark, N.J., told U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise that he would file a motion soon seeking a reduction in the prison time he faces on a 1980 conviction for taking more than $300,000 in kickbacks for dubious loans from the pension fund of Teamsters Local 1701 in New Brunswick, which he served as counsel. He was indicted again two weeks after his Labor Day, 1985, disappearance on charges of defrauding the same Teamsters local pension fund.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
