Countywide : No Charges as State Ends Robbins Probe

A state attorney general’s investigation into whether state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) illegally used campaign funds to finance a real estate development in Ventura County has concluded with the finding that there is nothing to “warrant the filing of charges.”

The state inquiry grew out of the development of the 3,850-acre Strathearn Ranch near Moorpark. The attorney general’s office looked into Robbins’ role in the ranch as part of an investigation into more than $400,000 in loans that the legislator made from his political campaign treasury.

In March, 1988, then-Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp closed the investigation because there was no evidence that any loans were used for projects that would benefit Robbins. That would have been a violation of the state law barring personal use of campaign funds.

At the time, Robbins said the loans were made to others by his campaign committee as investments--a practice permitted under state law.

In February, 1990, the attorney general’s office reopened the case because of sworn statements signed by Robbins as part of a lawsuit involving the Strathearn Ranch property. At the time, N. Eugene Hill, an assistant attorney general, said the documents indicated that one loan may have helped finance the development, in which Robbins held a personal interest.

Hill said Robbins’ statements “contradict information he personally provided to this office.”

But an information officer for state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said the inquiry was closed “because what they found in the investigation did not warrant the filing of charges.”