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.

Former state Sen. Alan Robbins, looking haggard and thin after nearly 19 months of imprisonment, has asked a judge 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 Friday, 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.