Robbins Says He Gave Payoffs in ’90 : Trial: The Van Nuys Democrat testifies that he paid $12,000, some of it in a McDonald’s bathroom. Outside court, the accused calls the account preposterous.

With the FBI stepping up its Capitol corruption investigation in 1990, a cautious Sen. Alan Robbins slipped $12,000 in cash to Paul Carpenter, then a member of the state Board of Equalization, at two clandestine meetings in Los Angeles.

Robbins, a Democrat from Van Nuys, described the secret money exchanges, including one in the mens’ room of a McDonalds restaurant, in testimony Thursday at the public corruption trial of Carpenter and lobbyist Clayton R. Jackson.

As the trial entered its third day, government prosecutors also for the first time began playing tapes of conversations that Robbins secretly recorded with Jackson between July 9, 1991, and Nov. 13, 1991.

Robbins, who is serving a two-year sentence after resigning his seat and pleading guilty to corruption charges, remained at center stage in the trial, interpreting the tapes and describing an elaborate money-laundering scheme designed to benefit him.

Under questioning by a federal prosecutor, Robbins spelled out what he called “a dandy idea,” saying that he arranged for Jackson to channel campaign contributions to Carpenter, who, in turn, would pay the funds to a Santa Monica public relations firm, the Goddard Co. Robbins testified that the firm paid out much of the money to his former female roommates, girlfriends and a massage therapist.

He also testified that Carpenter had told him that Jackson would funnel some contributions to Carpenter for his role in the scheme--devised to avoid publicly reporting large amounts of money from Jackson’s clients, primarily in the insurance industry, to Robbins, chairman of the Senate Insurance, Claims and Corporations Committee.

But Robbins said Carpenter complained that Jackson failed to fully live up to his end of the deal.

Robbins and Carpenter decided to discuss the situation and met at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on a Saturday in early April, 1990, during the Democratic state convention.

The two men quickly left the hotel and meandered on foot through deserted streets, seeking to shake any law enforcement tails, en route to a restaurant at the Hyatt Hotel.

Robbins said Carpenter told him that lobbyist Jackson “hadn’t completed sending him the last batch of funds and could I do something about it.”

But the meeting was interrupted when they spotted a TV news reporter sitting nearby.

The pair left the restaurant and resumed their zig zag walk until they came upon McDonald’s.

In the men’s room, Robbins said, he pulled out $5,000 and put it in a trash bin.

Carpenter immediately pulled out the bills and asked in mock surprise, “What’s this?” before sticking it in his pocket, Robbins testified.

In September, 1990, Robbins said, the two secretly met again in a conference room of his lawyer’s office.

When the meeting started, Carpenter said he still hadn’t received all the money from Jackson.

“I had $5,000 in my pocket which I took out and gave to him,” Robbins said. In a whisper, Carpenter asked him how much he had been handed and Robbins held up five fingers, Robbins told the jury.

Carpenter said that wasn’t enough and Robbins agreed to slip him another $2,000.

But as a precaution against being photographed by law enforcement agents from a neighboring office building, Robbins said he “took the money and handed it to him under the table.”

In an interview outside court, Carpenter brushed aside Robbins’ tale as preposterous, but he acknowledged that at least one meeting took place but not as described by Robbins.

Both Carpenter and Jackson have pleaded innocent to charges in U. S. District Court. Carpenter, a former state senator from Downey, is charged with 11 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Jackson is charged with 10 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering.

After Robbins testified about the cash payments to Carpenter, he remained on the witness stand as prosecutors played tapes he had recorded of five conversations with Jackson.

The tapes portrayed Jackson as a cocky inside player in the Capitol with access to Robbins, other legislative leaders and even Gov. Pete Wilson.

The conversations focused on Jackson’s efforts to stop a proposal that would have affected the rate that companies could charge for workers’ compensation insurance.

At one point during a July 10, 1991, meeting, Jackson appears to offer Robbins $250,000 if he could get the issue switched from the Senate Industrial Relations Committee to Robbins’ Insurance Committee, which was considered much more friendly to Jackson’s clients.

Jackson told Robbins that he was planning to meet with Wilson immediately after their breakfast meeting at a West Sacramento hotel.

The following day, Robbins asked lobbyist Jackson if Wilson agreed to side with Jackson’s clients on the rate issue.

“Yeah. But so what? I mean, look at all the commitments he’s made everybody. Yes, he’s made that commitment,” Jackson told Robbins during a secretly recorded meeting in the Capitol.

In his testimony, Robbins said he interpreted this comment to mean “at this time the governor had just protected him (Jackson) so the immediate problem was solved.”

But Kevin Eckery, Wilson’s deputy communications director, said there was no record of a meeting between Jackson and the governor.

But he acknowledged that the lobbyist might have met with some of Wilson’s staff.

Eckery maintained that Jackson “didn’t have any special access to our office.”

But he added that it was not unusual for the governor’s office to hear from lobbyists on various sides of an issue.