Honig Restitution Cut to $274,754; He Still Vows Appeal

Former schools chief Bill Honig was ordered Monday to pay $274,754 in restitution in connection with his felony conflict-of-interest convictions in January.

The amount was $60,000 less than he had been ordered to pay initially, but Honig continued to argue that he should not be required to pay any restitution in the case that involved his authorization of $337,509 in state contracts that benefited his wife’s nonprofit Quality Education Project.

“This is just another piece of evidence that this trial was a railroad job,” said Honig, whose attorneys are appealing the convictions and penalties.

Superior Court Judge James L. Long had tentatively ordered Honig to pay the full amount of the state contracts that called for hiring local educators to set up parental involvement programs in conjunction with Nancy Honig’s business.

Long found in his latest order that there was convincing evidence presented in Honig’s jury trial that the state received some of the services it paid for. Long deducted the $62,755 paid under one contract from the amount of Honig’s restitution order.

Long found that under another contract, a former school principal was paid with state funds “to work as a prominent QEP executive.” Regarding the work of two other educators, Long wrote in his order, “the testimony . . . fails to establish that the state received the services for which it contracted.”

Honig protested that educators called as witnesses by the prosecution testified that they had indeed performed the work described in the contracts.

Honig’s attorneys complained after the judge’s latest order that Long limited the defense from putting on evidence regarding the contracts and then decided, on his own, that some contracts may not have been fulfilled.

“I consider it ironic that the court’s decision appears to turn on evidence that was excluded from the jury at trial--that the state suffered no loss here and actually benefited,” said defense attorney Hugh Levine.

The state attorney general’s office, which prosecuted the case, praised Long’s order.

“We’re pleased that the court agreed that there was a victim, namely the taxpayers,” said Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, through a spokesman.

Long also has ordered Honig to pay a $10,800 fine, contribute 1,000 hours of community service and serve four years on probation.

The conflict-of-interest convictions cost Honig his $102,000-a-year job as state superintendent of public instruction. He is working as a visiting professor at San Francisco State University at a salary of $60,000 per year.