Nolan, Hill Deny Guilt in Hearing on Ethics Charges

Surrounded by Republican supporters, Assemblyman Pat Nolan of Glendale and Sen. Frank Hill of Whittier declared their innocence Wednesday to federal political corruption charges.

After a brief court appearance, Nolan and his San Francisco attorney, Ephraim Margolin, attacked prosecutors for pursuing the case--five years after Nolan accepted $10,000 in campaign contributions from undercover FBI agents seeking legislative favors.

“I was an honest legislator who couldn’t be bought,” Nolan told reporters. “The FBI resorted to fabricating a case against me.”

Said Margolin: “This is not a case of a legislator caught stuffing greenbacks into (his) pockets.”

To preserve a possible constitutional challenge, Margolin did not enter a not guilty plea on behalf of Nolan but asked federal magistrate Esther Mix to do so--a technical move that foreshadows the legal battle to come.

Nolan said that “the government’s tactic of bullying witnesses to manufacture a case against me is every bit as much on trial as I am.”

Hill, whose case centers on a $2,500 honorarium he took from undercover agents in 1988, said he was relieved to get the chance to clear his name “because I haven’t done anything wrong. I intend to fight these charges with every bone in my body.”

The lawmaker said his 9-year-old son keeps asking about the charges, and “I can’t wait until the day comes when I can go home . . . and say, ‘Greg, today’s the day I got my name cleared.’ ”

The Republican lawmakers, along with a former Democratic legislative aide, Terry E. Frost, were caught up in an FBI sting in which agents masqueraded as Southern businessmen and sought support for a special interest bill.

Frost, now a lobbyist, also pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Nolan, named in six of eight counts in the indictment, faces charges of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and money-laundering.

He was charged with extorting $10,000 in campaign contributions from FBI agents who posed as businessmen and sought legislation to help their bogus company build a shrimp processing plant near Sacramento.

The Glendale lawmaker, who was the Assembly Republican leader, is also charged with extorting a $10,000 campaign contribution in connection with another 1988 bill that would have helped construction of a resort in the desert city of Indian Wells.

The payment was made to a Republican-run campaign committee, Target ‘88, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The group reported receiving $10,000 from Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, a Washington law firm that represented Marriott Corp., which operates two hotels in the Palm Springs area and opposed the Indian Wells legislation.

Nolan was one of a handful of Assembly members to take Marriott’s side and vote against the bill, which won legislative approval but was vetoed by then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

Nolan and Hill are the first Republican lawmakers to be indicted in the federal corruption probe.

The charges against Hill--three counts of extortion, conspiracy and money-laundering--center on the FBI’s sting bill and the $2,500 check he accepted at a hotel across the street from the Capitol.

Frost is charged with conspiracy--helping Nolan and Hill extort a total of $12,500 from Peachstate Capital West, the bogus FBI company.

No trial date was set.