Sen. Keene Supports Carpenter’s ‘Reverse Sting’ Claim : Trial: Majority leader tells jury of a 1986 conversation in which the former legislator said he would ‘have some fun’ with undercover agent’s offer of $20,000.

Former state Sen. Paul Carpenter confided four years ago that he believed he was the target of a sting investigation and said he was “going to have some fun with it,” Senate Majority Leader Barry Keene testified Monday.

Keene (D-Benicia) told a federal court jury that he dismissed Carpenter’s statement because the senator had many “idiosyncrasies” and was known to do “a certain amount of fantasizing.”

Carpenter is on trial on four charges of racketeering, extortion and conspiracy as a result of a long-running FBI sting investigation into corruption in the state Capitol.

Central to his defense is the contention that he knew all along he was the target of a sting, knowingly took $20,000 from an undercover FBI agent and then laughed at him. In recent months, Carpenter has maintained that he was conducting his own “reverse sting” of federal authorities.

Much of the case against Carpenter revolves around a 1986 bill planted in the Legislature by the FBI that would have given a $1-million tax break to a dummy Alabama shrimp-importing firm seeking to open a processing plant near Sacramento.

Keene was among 10 witnesses called as the defense began presenting its case.

At the time of his conversation with Carpenter, Keene said, the Legislature was rife with rumors of a possible undercover investigation because of earlier charges of corruption involving state legislators. Senators would joke among themselves, he said, patting each other down in a supposed search for hidden tape recorders.

Keene said Carpenter’s comment about a possible sting came just before a vote was scheduled in a Senate committee on the shrimp bill.

“I thought it was a bit too lighthearted to be taken seriously,” Keene told the federal court jury. “I didn’t pay any attention to it. It didn’t direct my action at all.”

Defense attorney Gerard Hinckley suggested that his client was a “Walter Mitty” sort who sometimes imagined himself to be something other than what he was.

Keene agreed, saying, “Paul had very many creative ideas that were good ideas and many creative ideas that didn’t stand up well.”

Under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Nuechterlein, Keene testified that Carpenter said nothing about calling authorities about the $20,000 payment offered to him in connection with the shrimp bill. Instead, Keene said, “He told me he was going to have fun with it.”

According to evidence presented by federal prosecutors, Carpenter accepted the money and promised in several tape-recorded conversations to take action to help the shrimp bill win passage in the Senate. He did not vote for the measure when it was on the Senate floor.

Also called to testify were Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael), who said they could not recall Carpenter ever approaching them for help in winning approval of the bill.

In one taped conversation, Carpenter told undercover agent John E. Brennan that he had pushed Greene to take the measure off the inactive file in the Senate.

But Greene told the jury, “I don’t recall any conversation with Sen. Carpenter at any time regarding that bill.”

Similarly, Carpenter aide John Shahabian said at one point that Carpenter would go to Roberti to arrange to have the bill heard in a more favorable committee.

“I have such an absence of recollection on that bill, I feel pretty confident that Sen. Carpenter never talked to me about that bill,” Roberti said.

In an attempt to shake the testimony of Shahabian--who is now cooperating with the government--the defense called Doris Morrow, a former aide to the senator who testified she has lived with Carpenter since before the investigation began.

She told the jury that she overheard a key meeting in Carpenter’s office in which Shahabian told the senator about the $20,000 contribution and requested a cut for himself.

Morrow testified that Carpenter suggested it could be a setup but Shahabian insisted it was legitimate. Her statements contradicted Shahabian, who said that Carpenter never raised the question of a sting. Shahabian had testified that he did not recall Morrow being present when he met with Carpenter.

The prosecution sought to undermine Morrow’s testimony by pointing out her close ties with Carpenter, noting that she began dating the senator nearly a decade ago, before he hired her and at a time when he was married.