CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Ex-Kin of Aguilar Enters Guilty Plea

An 84-year-old former relative of U.S. District Judge Robert Aguilar pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the case that led to Aguilar’s downfall. Abe Chapman, who was once related to Aguilar by marriage, pleaded guilty to conspiring to seek Aguilar’s illicit intervention with another federal judge in 1988 to get a new embezzlement trial for Chapman’s friend, former Teamster leader Rudy Tham. Tham was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a separate trial. Aguilar testified he made no attempt to influence the judge, Stanley Weigel, but asked only innocuous questions about the status of Tham’s case, an account that Weigel confirmed. Aguilar was acquitted of conspiracy but convicted last August of two other felonies: that he disclosed a wiretap to Chapman and lied to FBI agents who asked him about the wiretap and his involvement in Tham’s case. A jury at Chapman’s first trial deadlocked on the conspiracy charge. Though it carries a possible five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine, Justice Department prosecutors agreed in a plea-bargain not to seek any prison term or fine.