Robbins Makes Plea to Keep Real Estate License : Courts: Ex-Valley legislator tells judge he shouldn’t be deprived of livelihood over political corruption case. Attorney for state disagrees.

Former state Sen. Alan Robbins, looking haggard and thin after nearly 19 months of imprisonment, asked a judge Friday to let him keep his real estate license, contending that he should not be deprived of his livelihood and punished again for pleading guilty to political corruption charges.

But an attorney representing the state Department of Real Estate, now seeking to revoke Robbins’ license, told the same judge that Robbins was one of the “most highly destructive men in California history” who had not yet proven that he was rehabilitated and deserved to hold a real estate license.

After a five-hour hearing, Administrative Law Judge Richard J. Lopez took the revocation matter under submission, saying he expected to issue his proposed order to state Real Estate Commissioner Clark Wallace in the next few weeks. Wallace will make his own decision based on Lopez’s recommendations, although even Wallace’s final ruling can be appealed in the courts.

The hearing was the Van Nuys Democrat’s first public appearance since he was released Jan. 12 to a Hollywood halfway house after spending almost 19 months sentenced to the Lompoc federal work camp.

On May 1, 1992, Robbins pleaded guilty to racketeering and income tax falsification charges and agreed to work as an informant for federal investigators probing corruption in the state Capitol.

Robbins’ guilty pleas ended the career of one of the state capital’s most colorful and controversial figures. In the aftermath, the senator, who became wealthy in a series of real estate deals, was forced to resign from the state Senate and the California State Bar.

“I went from being one of the most powerful,” Robbins testified, “to being unable to decide which mop to use to mop the floor” in prison.

At the hearing, a long parade of character witnesses testified that Robbins was a man of high ethics in his business dealings and a paragon of government service.

Letters of support for Robbins came from former state Sen. Ed Davis, former Assemblymen Tom Bane and Jim Keysor, and former Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Ronka. UCLA Chancellor Charles Young also wrote a letter of support as did two rabbis, a priest and numerous realtors and developers.

James Montgomery, a leader in the San Fernando Valley chapter of the NAACP, testified that Robbins had a knack for “reaching down to help those who are unfortunate.” Montgomery urged the judge to let his decision “come from the heart, not from the head.”

Steve Afriat, a City Hall political consultant and longtime Democratic party activist, recalled how Robbins had gone into gay and lesbian clubs to collect toys for the needy in his district when others who were homophobic would not. Asked if he would trust Robbins in a real estate deal, Afriat quipped that he wished Robbins would “sell my house in North Hollywood.”

Charles Fuentes, a former top aide to City Atty. James K. Hahn, told the judge of how Robbins had carried difficult anti-gang legislation for Hahn in Sacramento; realtor Lance W. Anderson related how Robbins had dealt fairly with commercial tenants at one of his real estate projects, and building contractor Hal Smith, a community activist, testified that Robbins “did more for the San Fernando Valley than all other legislators combined.”

Taking the stand himself for more than an hour, Robbins said: “I feel as a matter of fairness (that) I’ve paid my price and I did my time for the things I did wrong.”

Robbins said that Lompoc was no “country club prison” and talked about the assistance he had given to federal corruption investigators that resulted in the recent conviction of Clay Jackson, one of Sacramento’s top lobbyists, on corruption charges.

Robbins contended that he drew an inordinate amount of scut-work details cleaning toilets and boiler rooms at Lompoc because the authorities didn’t want to appear to be doing favors for a former high public official. He also said that his fellow inmates harassed him because he was a former senator and an informant.

Robbins warned that if he lost his real estate license, a large real estate commission due him in a deal involving a Marina del Rey partnership would go into the pockets of his undeserving partners instead of to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to pay off a $3.3-million loan Robbins says he is obligated to pay back to the agency.

The former state senator is embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with his partners in the Marina project, contending that they have encouraged the state Department of Real Estate to revoke his license so they can avoid having to pay him a real estate commission upon the sale of their huge Marina apartment complex and boat slip franchise.

Attorney Dave Shane said Robbins was likely to be a better and more ethical broker because he would be aware of how closely the activities of a man of his notoriety would be watched both by real estate authorities and by his clients.

But state real estate agency attorney Elliott Mac Lennan said state law required realtors guilty of felonies to lose their licenses and not regain them until they had proved they were rehabilitated and at least two years had elapsed since they finished their sentences.

The department, Mac Lennan said, did not see “any reason for an exception” to the law for Robbins.