Robbins Testifies About Dealings With Lobbyist

Using a pointer and a chart, former Sen. Alan Robbins on Wednesday gave jurors an insider’s lesson in how a lawmaker can manipulate the legislative system to his advantage.

Robbins, who is serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to corruption charges and resigning from office in 1991, was the leadoff witness in the government’s case against lobbyist Clayton R. Jackson and his co-defendant, former Sen. Paul B. Carpenter (D-Downey).

Jackson is charged with 10 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering. Carpenter was indicted on 11 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Both have pleaded innocent in U.S. District Court.

In a steady voice that resonated throughout the chamber, the mustachioed Robbins, looking thinner and a bit grayer than in his heyday in the Capitol a few blocks away, outlined his relationship with Jackson dating back more than a decade.

The onetime Van Nuys Democrat testified that “every year like clockwork” he would meet with the influential lobbyist at what they called “budget discussions.”

At these sessions, Jackson would list the campaign contributions his clients had given the veteran lawmaker and, in exchange, what Robbins had done for the clients or what would be expected of him in the upcoming legislative year, the ex-lawmaker told the jury in the trial’s second day.

Robbins, once one of the Capitol’s most powerful figures, said that from the early 1980s he agreed “basically that when he could, when it was politically feasible . . . I would do whatever I could to assist him (Jackson).”

Sitting forward, sometimes sipping water, Robbins contended that “the more help I was furnishing for his (Jackson’s) clients, the more money he would deliver from his clients.”

Robbins, former chairman of the Senate Insurance, Claims and Corporations Committee, maintained that in the early days of these meetings, Jackson would deliver envelopes with checks stapled inside with his business card and a list of clients.

Later, Robbins said, after the practice of actually bringing checks into the Capitol was outlawed, they would “step two feet outside the Capitol” to exchange the checks, or Jackson would put them in the mail and deliver photocopies.

Robbins said that no other lobbyist had such a close relationship with him and that he would meet with Jackson every week before hearings of his Senate Insurance Committee “to go over the matters of interest to Mr. Jackson’s clients.”

Robbins testified that he talked about his “budget discussions” with Carpenter, who was then the Senate Democratic caucus chairman and a prime fund-raiser for Senate Democrats.

Donald Heller, Jackson’s lawyer, vigorously objected to much of Robbins’ testimony, contending that he was not describing illegal activity.

And in his opening statement before Robbins took the witness stand, Carpenter’s lawyer, Charles F. Bloodgood, described the former lawmaker “as a master manipulator.” He later branded him as “the devil,” adding that the government “made a deal with the devil.”

For one stretch in his testimony, Robbins, wielding a pointer, acted like a civics teacher using a diagram to explain to the jury how a bill becomes law. But he also repeatedly cited ways that a powerful committee chairman such as himself could sidetrack legislation.

As part of his agreement to cooperate with the government, Robbins said that from December, 1992, to April, 1993, he provided similar technical expertise, “sharing my experiences” with federal agents probing corruption in state government.

Times staff writers Paul Jacobs and Cynthia H. Craft contributed to this story.