Judge Orders Montoya to Enter Prison Next Week

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered former state Sen. Joseph Montoya to surrender in one week to begin serving his 6 1/2-year prison sentence for corruption.

U.S. District Judge Milton Schwartz set a deadline of noon next Tuesday after a federal appeals court earlier this week denied Montoya’s motion to remain free while he seeks to overturn his conviction.

Montoya, a Whittier Democrat, has been free without bail since his indictment in May, 1989. He resigned from office under pressure from Senate leaders in February, when he was convicted on seven counts of racketeering, extortion and money laundering.

The judge said Montoya, 51, can either turn himself in at the U.S. marshal’s office in Sacramento or go directly to the prison designated by the federal Bureau of Prisons.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons said the prison to which convicts are designated is confidential. However, the judge, at the urging of Montoya’s lawyer, recommended that the former senator serve his time at the minimum-security camp at Lompoc.

Lompoc is being converted from a low-security camp to a somewhat more secure facility that will house some medium-security prisoners.

Kris Southard, bureau spokesman in Sacramento, said prison authorities give considerable weight to a judge’s recommendation but also consider a convict’s record of violence, escapes and prior convictions. He said they also try to place prisoners close to their families.

Montoya, who has never been convicted of a crime before, also could be sent to the low-security camp at Boron, in the desert near Edwards Air Force Base.