Lobbyist Says Aide Asked Funds for Robbins : Legislature: The money was to influence passage of a bill, according to testimony at Sen. Montoya’s corruption trial. Robbins denies the allegation.

A capital lobbyist testified in federal court Thursday that in 1985 he was told state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) demanded a campaign contribution to push a bill on behalf of osteopathic physicians through a committee that Robbins headed.

The lobbyist testified that an aide to state Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier), who is on trial on corruption charges, relayed a message from Robbins that it “was going to cost a campaign contribution to get the bill out of the committee.”

Matthew L. Weyuker, executive director and lobbyist for Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons of California, testified that he told the aide he “thought it was an underhanded thing to do.”

Weyuker told the jury he refused to make the contribution.

Outside the courtroom, Weyuker was asked whether he thought the message was “a shakedown.”

“It seemed that way,” he replied, but he acknowledged to reporters that he never received a demand for money directly from Robbins and that Robbins voted in favor of his bill without receiving any contributions.

Robbins rejected Weyuker’s testimony, declaring: “I can tell you that I never asked Montoya or any other member of the Senate to raise money for me. . . . I have a large base of San Fernando Valley contributors. . . . We don’t have any trouble raising money.”

Robbins said research by his staff showed he supported the measure when it was reconsidered by the Senate Insurance, Claims and Corporations Committee, which he chairs.

Weyuker’s testimony came as the U.S. District Court trial of Montoya on 12 counts of extortion, racketeering and bribery ended its fourth week.

It was the third time that Robbins’ name has come up in the trial, which stems from an elaborate FBI sting operation aimed at uncovering corruption in the Legislature.

Robbins, who has yet to declare whether he will be a candidate for reelection when his term expires this year, has been identified as a subject of the FBI investigation but has not been charged with any crime.

Earlier this week, a Senate aide who became an FBI informant after he was snared by the sting testified that Robbins “suggested $40,000” would be required to win Senate passage of a bill to help a dummy FBI shrimp company.

Under state anti-bribery laws, a crime is committed if any lawmaker “asks, receives or agrees to receive, any bribe, upon any understanding that his official vote, opinion, judgment or action shall be influenced thereby. . . .”

The FBI looked for evidence that lawmakers violated federal corruption laws by breaking state laws.

Weyuker said the events involving Robbins unfolded in the spring of 1985 after Montoya introduced legislation sought by the osteopathic group to reduce discriminatory practices in the hiring of osteopaths by health maintenance organizations and other groups.

He said that the measure initially stalled in Robbins’ committee on a 2-2 vote, with Robbins abstaining.

Robbins urged supporters and opponents to seek a compromise and said the committee would reconsider the measure two weeks later, Weyuker recalled.

Meanwhile, Weyuker said, while he was en route to a meeting in the state of Washington, he received a call from Manuel Zamorano, a Montoya aide.

According to Weyuker, Zamorano said Robbins had suggested that Montoya contact the osteopaths and tell them that a campaign contribution to Robbins would be required to win committee approval of their legislation.

Weyuker told the jury that Zamorano “was as upset and opposed as I was” to the suggestion.

When he returned to Sacramento, Weyuker said he went to see Robbins and told the senator “there was no way we could come up with” a campaign contribution of the size the lawmaker sought “and left the bill at his disposal.”

Nonetheless, Robbins voted for the measure, which Weyuker said died in another committee in 1986.

In an interview, Weyuker said Zamorano told him that Robbins sought a $3,000 campaign contribution.

He emphasized that when they met, Robbins made no direct appeal for money.

Instead, he said, Robbins reminded him that the osteopathic group “had never supported . . . any fund-raising activities of his.”

Robbins said he has met Weyuker, but “I don’t have much of a recollection” of the osteopaths’ bill or his conversation with the lobbyist.

Weyuker, a one-time legislative aide, also said that last summer he recounted these events to a federal grand jury investigating corruption in the capital.

But at the time the incident occurred, Weyuker acknowledged, he failed to tell authorities, explaining that he did not want “to blow an unsubstantiated whistle.”

Moreover, he said, the events “seemed to be business as usual.”

CORRUPTION TRIAL

Witness relates Montoya aide’s request for $5,000. A29