Urged to ‘Bug’ Donors, Montoya Aide Says : Ethics: Court is told constant pressure was applied by senator to raise funds. Insurance executive was told ‘it could cost’ to get legislation passed.

Sen. Joseph B. Montoya told the head of an insurance company he would “have to spend some money” if he wanted to win passage of legislation to help his business, a former aide to the Whittier Democrat testified Tuesday.

Kathleen Somerton, a former consultant to Montoya’s Senate subcommittee on sports, also testified that she was under constant pressure from the senator to raise campaign contributions from individuals who dealt with the subcommittee.

At one point, former Montoya aide Amiel A. Jaramillo gave her a ledger so she could keep track of fund-raising calls she made to groups that had a stake in bills pending before the panel, she testified.

“I would say he (Montoya) bugged me to bug them,” Somerton said. “I would let them know they really needed to support Joe and needed to come to fund-raisers.”

Somerton was the only witness to testify Tuesday in the federal trial of Montoya, who has been charged with 12 counts of extortion, bribery, racketeering and money laundering. Jaramillo, until recently Montoya’s top aide, faces trial in March for extortion and racketeering.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Michael Sands tried to show that Somerton acted on her own to raise campaign funds and that she, along with Montoya, would have received a free trip to Florida paid for by the insurance businessman, Doug Ruedlinger.

But Somerton testified that she was acting at the behest of Montoya and said it was Montoya who asked her to request the trip to Florida on Ruedlinger’s private jet.

Somerton is a central figure in two of the eight incidents of alleged improper conduct cited in the federal indictment of Montoya.

In one case, she dealt with former sports agent Michael Trope and representatives of the National Football League Players’ Assn., who were on opposite sides of legislation to regulate sports agents.

And she worked with Ruedlinger, owner of the Ruedlinger Insurance Co. of Florida, who was seeking legislation to help him sell insurance to school districts. The insurance would have covered catastrophic injuries to high school athletes.

Somerton testified that in 1985 she had lunch with Ruedlinger to discuss his proposal for legislation and then took him to Montoya’s office, where she introduced him to the senator.

At that meeting, she said, Montoya told Ruedlinger that money would be required to get his proposal through the Legislature.

After that meeting, she said, Ruedlinger asked her how much it would cost. “I told him $10,000 to $20,000, depending on how he wanted to go about it,” she said.

For $20,000, she said, Ruedlinger could hire a lobbyist who would handle passage of the bill and give out $10,000 of the money to legislators as campaign contributions.

Or he could lobby the bill himself and spend $10,000 on political donations, she said. He could “just make contributions to Joe (Montoya) and Joe would advise who to make contributions to in the Assembly,” she testified.

Later, however, Ruedlinger decided against pursuing legislation in California to help his business.

In apparent response, Montoya sent a letter to school districts throughout the state criticizing Ruedlinger’s insurance company, federal prosecutors say. Ruedlinger is scheduled to testify today.

On the issue involving professional players and sports agents, Somerton said Montoya stopped helping the players’ association and sided with Trope after the Los Angeles agent began making campaign contributions to the senator.

“He (Montoya) basically stated he was supporting Mike because Mike was supporting him,” she testified.

Somerton said she attended a lunch meeting between Montoya and David Meggysey, Western director of the players’ association, at which the senator explained he was no longer supporting the union because the union had not supported him. Somerton said she interpreted the senator’s statement to mean financial support.

During cross-examination, Sands tried to portray Montoya’s disagreement with the association as a difference over other issues, such as the senator’s support for drug testing. But Somerton said the dispute focused on campaign contributions. She testified that Montoya told Meggysey: “You guys haven’t been supporting me. Friends take care of friends.”

After the jury was dismissed for the day, Judge Milton L. Schwartz agreed to a request from three Sacramento-area television stations to release copies of secretly recorded audio and video tapes of Montoya as they are introduced into evidence. Montoya’s lawyers had objected to the release, claiming that the tapes would violate the lawmaker’s privacy rights and could be easily distorted by opponents in a political campaign.

Attorney Bruce Jay Kelton argued that unlike transcripts, the actual tapes pose special problems because sections are likely to be edited and played out of context “if the senator runs for reelection (in 1990) . . . .”

Assistant U.S. Atty. John P. Panneton, however, supported the television stations, arguing that both sides would selectively use parts of the tapes to bolster their position in the trial in a way similar to what was likely to happen in an election campaign.