Tapes Describe Alleged Extortion of Calderon : Crime: The state senator carried a device to record talks with suspects. One is the husband of his ex-wife.

State Sen. Charles M. Calderon was making some final holiday arrangements last Christmas Eve when he paused to prepare a special package.

Calderon took five bundles of cash, a total of $10,000, and drove to the Montebello police station. There, officers photocopied the money for later identification. Then they placed it in a manila envelope.

An hour and a half later, Calderon stepped away from guests gathered at his Whittier home and handed the envelope to Steven Newton, a Mission Viejo man who was engaged to marry Calderon’s ex-wife, Jeannine.

What Newton apparently did not know was that the first-term Democratic senator was wired with a recording device and Montebello Police Department detectives were just a few blocks away, listening to the entire exchange.

Tape recordings of this tough, plain-talking conversation and several others became the basis of felony charges filed against Newton and his half-brother, Robert Moreno, for allegedly trying to extort $100,000 from Calderon by threatening to reveal alleged misuse of campaign funds.

The $10,000 represented an initial payment.

Newton pleaded not guilty Wednesday in East Los Angeles Municipal Court to charges of attempted extortion, conspiracy and sending a threatening letter for extortion. Moreno, a Virginia resident, is expected to be arraigned next Wednesday on the same charges.

If convicted, each could spend up to four years in prison.

Calderon (D-Whittier) has said through a spokeswoman that he will not discuss details of the case because of the pending charges. Spokeswoman Bobbie Metzger described as “groundless” the claims of campaign improprieties that allegedly were used in an attempt to coerce Calderon.

“Obviously, if the senator was concerned (about the alleged improprieties) he would not have gone to the police,” Metzger said.

Lawyers for the accused men did not return repeated phone calls.

Details of the charges became public for the first time this week through police reports and transcripts of tape-recorded meetings between Calderon and the defendants. The records reveal the escalation in a divorce battle that has enveloped Calderon, his former wife and Newton, her new husband.

Calderon married the aspiring fashion model in 1986, but they separated after less than four years. Jeannine Calderon filed for divorce in May of last year and friends say the couple fought bitterly over custody of their two sons, now 3 and 5. The court records are sealed.

Child custody remained a prominent issue as Calderon and Newton met last December, according to police reports and transcripts of their tape-recorded conversations.

The state senator first went to Montebello police Dec. 19, telling them that he had been contacted by Moreno earlier that day and that the two met at a Montebello shopping center. There, Moreno allegedly produced a single, typewritten page of nine allegations that Calderon had used campaign money for personal expenses. Calderon told police he believed his wife was the source of the charges.

Moreno allegedly threatened to give the list to the media unless Calderon agreed to meet with Newton to resolve child custody disputes and “a more equitable agreement regarding equity in a house,” a police report says.

The following day, Calderon, Moreno and Newton met at an Orange County hotel. Calderon wore a police wire.

During a tense meeting that lasted more than half an hour, Newton allegedly told Calderon that $100,000 would be a “fair” payment--according to a transcript of the meeting--”given the equity in the home, any pension fund, anything like that. $100,000. . . . It’s really not even negotiable.”

When Calderon asked the two men to specify the consequences if he did not pay, Moreno objected. “We don’t want to deal with that,” Moreno allegedly said. “. . . Nobody’s trying to hold you up, guy. Are you trying to make a case for extortion, fine.”

Calderon and Newton subsequently spoke on the phone and arranged their Christmas Eve meeting.

Calderon worried aloud at that last meeting that some of the allegations already had leaked out, according to a transcript.

As Newton prepared to leave with the envelope full of cash, he allegedly told Calderon: “You’ve essentially stopped the whole thing, OK, by acting in good will. So I expect next Monday to have the other 40 (thousand dollars) . . . and then a couple of months later on the remaining money.

“I mean, that’s the deal we came up with,” the transcript says. “It’s not changeable and it’s not negotiable. . . .”