Montoya Aide Requested $5,000, Witness Says : Corruption trial: San Diego businesswoman testifies that she was asked for money to get the senator to delay action on a bill.

A San Diego businesswoman testified Thursday that a top aide to Sen. Joseph B. Montoya once advised her to give the senator $5,000 and said “if you wanted to dance you had to pay the fiddler.”

Jamie Hundt, testifying in Montoya’s political corruption trial, said former aide Amiel A. Jaramillo told her that a $5,000 campaign contribution to the Whittier Democrat could help persuade the senator to grant a three-week delay to a bill pending in his Senate committee.

During several phone conversations, she testified, Jaramillo told her that making large campaign contributions was “the way the system works” and would be necessary to obtain favorable legislative action.

“I said, if this is the system, this is criminal and this is wrong and this is not the way the system should run,” said Hundt, who twice was overcome with emotion.

The testimony came as federal prosecutors were wrapping up their case against Montoya, who is charged with 12 counts of extortion, racketeering, bribery and money laundering.

Jaramillo, who left his job with Montoya a year ago, is scheduled to go on trial in March on five related counts of extortion, racketeering and conspiracy.

Hundt, a co-owner with her husband of Dial A Contact Lens Inc. in La Jolla, said Jaramillo telephoned her in 1988 and informed her that a bill pending in the Legislature would put the mail order contact lens firm out of business.

Hundt testified that the call was the first she had heard of a bill carried by Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) that would have banned the sale of contact lenses by mail unless the seller personally checked the way the lenses fit the eyeball.

Jaramillo informed her that the bill was sponsored by the California Optometric Assn., a powerful group that had contributed large amounts of money to various legislators, she said.

And he recommended that she contact lobbyist David Kim for assistance in defeating the measure, which was scheduled to come up the following week in the Senate Business and Professions Committee chaired by Montoya.

When she called Kim, the lobbyist advised her it would take $50,000 to block passage of the bill, including a $5,000 campaign contribution to Montoya to win a three-week postponement of the upcoming hearing, Hundt testified.

Of the total, Kim told her, $20,000 would be needed for campaign contributions to unspecified legislators, and Kim’s own fee would be $25,000, she said.

When she later discussed these figures with the Montoya aide, she testified, “Mr. Jaramillo said it would be a good idea to give $5,000 to Sen. Montoya because he is the chairman of the Business and Professions Committee.”

Jaramillo gave Hundt the phone numbers of other businesses affected by the bill that might be willing to contribute some of the money, she said.

Instead of raising the money, Hundt and her husband, Dieter, began organizing their customers to protest the legislation, which would have prevented the company from selling lenses at discount rates far below the cost of contacts sold through optometrists.

Hundt said that after she led Jaramillo to believe that a donation might be forthcoming, the senator granted the three-week delay in hearing the bill.

Unable to afford airline tickets, the Hundts drove to Sacramento when the bill was heard in Montoya’s committee. Kim met them at the Pennysaver restaurant and took them to the Capitol.

Hundt said that when she met Jaramillo, she complained that Kim was “sleazy.” Jaramillo responded that the lobbyist was “a good man” and that he was “doing a good job.” At the hearing, the committee agreed to shelve the legislation for 1988.

Hundt said she and her husband never gave any money to Montoya. Last year, however, when a similar bill came before the panel, the Hundts were not notified and the measure sailed through. An analysis prepared by Montoya’s staff said there was no known opposition to the legislation.

Later, the jurors heard from the manager of a La Puente Ford dealership who said Montoya used $10,000 in campaign funds for the purchase of new cars.

However, under cross-examination, Bruce Edward Newmark, general manager of Ed Butts Ford, said the dealership’s records have been purged and that it was possible that the payments could have covered car rentals made by Montoya for political purposes.

California law prohibits the use of campaign funds for personal purposes. Montoya has not been charged with such a violation, but prosecutors hope such evidence will demonstrate the senator’s alleged pattern of using his office for personal gain.

Also Thursday, lobbyist Matthew Weyuker testified that a Montoya aide told him he would have to give a campaign contribution to Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) to secure passage of a 1985 bill benefiting his client, the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons. Outside the courtroom, Weyuker said he was told to contribute $3,000. Before the jury, Weyuker said he refused to make the payment but that Robbins ultimately voted for the measure anyway.