Judge in Montoya Trial Seals FBI’s Tapes of Robbins

The tapes of six secretly recorded conversations between Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) and an FBI informant were sealed Wednesday by the judge presiding over the political corruption trial of Sen. Joseph Montoya (D-Whittier).

“I can’t find a single thing in any of these transcripts that I can see would be helpful in the defense of this case,” said U.S. District Court Judge Milton L. Schwartz, who is presiding over Montoya’s trial on 12 counts of extortion, racketeering and corruption.

But prosecutors said there is nothing in Schwartz’s ruling that would preclude their use of the tapes in future trials stemming from the FBI’s investigation into political corruption in the capital.

The taped conversations--between Sept. 11, 1987 and June 21, 1988--were secretly recorded by John Shahabian, a Senate aide who became an informant after being ensnared in an elaborate sting operation that was part of the FBI probe.

Under cross-examination by Montoya’s lawyer, Michael Sands, Shahabian on Tuesday testified that in one of the conversations Robbins “suggested $40,000” would be required to win Senate passage of a bill to help a dummy FBI shrimp company.

In another secretly recorded conversation, Shahabian testified Tuesday that Robbins told him on Aug. 11, 1987, that it would cost the sponsors less than $20,000 in campaign contributions for the senator to introduce the bill. However, on Wednesday he corrected himself, testifying that the date of the conversation actually was Sept. 11, 1987.