Jury Convicts Carpenter, Jackson of Corruption : Ethics: Ex-legislator, lobbyist are found guilty on all counts. Verdicts are latest in U.S. probe of state Capitol.

A federal jury Wednesday found former state Sen. Paul B. Carpenter and high-powered lobbyist Clayton R. Jackson guilty of multiple counts of political corruption in a case that highlighted influence-peddling in the state Capitol.

The convictions were the latest in a string of successful prosecutions by the U.S. attorney’s office, which, along with a federal grand jury and the FBI, has been investigating corruption in state government since the mid-1980s.

“The message that we hope is sent by this is that bribery will not be tolerated and will be pursued,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. John Vincent, the chief prosecutor in the six-week trial. “We will attempt to root it out wherever we find it.”

Jackson’s lawyer, Donald H. Heller, drew a different lesson.

“What this sends is a message to everyone participating in government to get out,” Heller said. “If you can be charged and convicted for making and reporting lawful political contributions, then it’s time to retire. That’s the frightening thing.”

Prosecutors contended that for at least a decade, Jackson and former state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) engaged in an illicit relationship centered on bribes.

Robbins, who resigned his office in 1991 and pleaded guilty to corruption charges, was the government’s star witness. The prosecution pegged much of its case on tapes Robbins secretly recorded of conversations with Jackson--tapes which at least one juror said were crucial to arriving at the guilty verdicts against the lobbyist.

After deliberating for six days, the jury found Jackson, 50, a San Francisco lawyer and top insurance lobbyist, guilty on all 10 counts he faced, including racketeering, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and laundering money to Robbins. Jackson had no visible reaction to the verdict and remained tight-lipped as he left the courtroom, declining comment.

Carpenter, 65, was found guilty on all 11 counts that he was indicted on by the grand jury last February. The charges included mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money-laundering.

The Downey Democrat, who had no comment, remained expressionless but at one point turned and smiled slightly at a supporter.

The two defendants remain free pending sentencing Feb. 14 by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia. Even though Jackson faces 65 years in prison and Carpenter 55 years plus substantial fines, prosecutors said they expect the actual sentences to be far less, possibly between five and seven years.

The case has attracted widespread attention in the Capitol, in part because of testimony from Robbins, who is now in prison, about how money buys favors from lawmakers. Also, perhaps more than the other corruption cases, the trial put on display the inner workings of the Legislature.

Eleven other defendants, including Robbins and former state Sen. Joseph Montoya (D-Whittier), have pleaded guilty, been convicted or are awaiting trial in connection with the federal probe.

Richard Ross, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Sacramento office, made it clear that the corruption probe is not over, saying that “sidebar issues” raised during the trial would be worthy of investigation. He declined to spell out the new avenues the investigation might take, saying only, “We’re going to continue to pursue it and possibly have another day in court.”

Ross also suggested that the latest verdict “says something about the policing that needs to go on internally” in the Legislature.

Both Heller and Charles F. Bloodgood, Carpenter’s lawyer, said they will file motions for new trials and will appeal the convictions. Heller said his motions will be based, in part, on the “outrageous” tactics used by the FBI and Robbins to “shake down and extort” Jackson.

“I don’t know what weighed on the minds of the jurors other than the deep-seated feeling that anyone connected with government must be tarnished. I think that was the hidden factor we were trying to deal with,” Heller said outside the courthouse.

That assertion was denied by juror Ken Richins. “The jury did not express that,” he said.

Outside the courthouse, Richins and other jurors blamed California’s political system, in which millions and millions of dollars in election campaign contributions by major vested interests are lavished on politicians. Jurors indicated that it stretched the limits of their common sense to believe that donors expect nothing in return from officeholders.

“We all felt the system caused the crime,” said juror Robert Bartosh. “Any time people can give money away, sooner or later something (bad) is going to happen.”

Juror Richins, 47, a computer engineer from Gridley, north of Sacramento, differed sharply with prosecutor Vincent’s praise of Robbins’ key testimony.

“Personally, I believed that Alan Robbins was a scumbag,” Richins said. “I would have felt much better about the case without Alan Robbins.”

The trial began Oct. 12 with Robbins as the government’s leadoff witness, giving jurors a primer on how the Capitol works. He said that Jackson had bribed him on legislation dating back to the 1980s, including the so-called desert wars bill that would have given special treatment to a luxury resort planned near Palm Springs.

The jury on Wednesday cited the desert wars bill as one of three racketeering acts in which Jackson was guilty. Another centered on mail fraud and money laundering, and the third focused on Jackson’s offer to pay Robbins $250,000 to switch jurisdiction of controversial workers’ compensation insurance legislation.

The evidence against Jackson included the secretly taped conversations made in 1991 in which Jackson and Robbins discussed moving the legislation to “the friendly confines” of the Senate Insurance, Claims and Corporations Committee chaired by Robbins.

In his defense, Jackson testified that he was merely “dancing” with Robbins, putting him off until the legislative session ended. He stressed that he never paid Robbins a cent of the money they discussed.

However, insurance company executives testified that Jackson was seeking contributions from them at the same time he contended he was deflecting Robbins’ appeals for money. In response, Jackson testified that he sought the funds to start a legitimate insurance trade association, not to pay off Robbins.

As for Jackson’s contention that he was set up by Robbins, juror Bartosh said “most of us didn’t feel there was entrapment. There were too many instances in the tapes for him (Jackson) to get out of it if he wanted to.”

Shortly after his last meeting with Jackson in November, 1991, Robbins pleaded guilty to corruption charges, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and resigned the San Fernando Valley state Senate seat he had held for 18 1/2 years. Because of his cooperation, Robbins’ original five-year prison sentence was reduced to two years--making him eligible for release early next year.

Aside from the tapes, another pillar of the case was Robbins’ testimony about an elaborate money-laundering scheme designed to illegally benefit him and his friends.

During the course of the lengthy trial, prosecutors argued that contributions from Jackson’s unsuspecting lobbying clients, especially insurance firms, fueled the scheme.

They maintained that the funds were paid to Carpenter’s campaign committee, which, in turn, hired a Santa Monica public relations firm, the Goddard Co., at Robbins’ direction. Robbins testified that he enjoyed telling the firm’s owner, Jennifer Goddard, how to spend the money on artwork or on his personal friends.

Goddard testified that she never did any work in exchange for the money, only meeting Carpenter once during the 2 1/2 years he paid her about $78,000.

Carpenter said he retained Goddard to keep negative news stories from appearing in the Los Angeles Times and that Robbins had claimed the public relations firm had influence with the paper--a charge denied by Goddard and The Times’ editor, Shelby Coffey III.

Times staff writers Cynthia H. Craft and Carl Ingram contributed to this story.