Lobbyist Given 6 1/2-Year Term in Corruption Case : Capitol: Clayton Jackson is ordered into immediate custody. Co-defendant Paul Carpenter remains a fugitive.

A federal court judge Monday sentenced lobbyist Clayton R. Jackson to 6 1/2 years in prison on political corruption charges and ordered him into immediate custody.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John Vincent had sought a nine-year sentence for the former top insurance industry lobbyist, convicted in December on 10 counts of racketeering, mail fraud and money-laundering. Vincent said he is pleased with the outcome.

“There has to be a message sent,” Vincent said. “These cases are excruciatingly difficult to investigate, and when we are successful in showing corruption it is important that a stern sentence be meted out so that people . . . will think twice about it.”

The whereabouts of Jackson’s co-defendant, former state Sen. Paul B. Carpenter, remained a mystery, Vincent said. Carpenter, also scheduled for sentencing Monday, disappeared last week and apparently fled the country to be treated for terminal cancer.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia last week issued a warrant for Carpenter’s arrest.

On Monday, Garcia said he did not believe Jackson was a risk to flee but turned down a plea for bail from Jackson’s lawyer, Donald H. Heller, saying that to allow him extra time “would only delay the inevitable.”

“As far as I’m concerned this case has run its course,” Garcia said, noting that Jackson “received a fair trial.”

Before being whisked away by federal marshals, the 6-foot-6-inch, blue-suited Jackson declined to make a statement to Garcia and a courtroom jammed with his friends, family, lobbying associates and other supporters.

Heller predicted that an appellate court will release Jackson, 50, and order a new trial, saying the government, with the help of former Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), had entrapped the kingpin lobbyist, whose firm once earned $2 million a year from an array of blue chip clients--more than any other in the Capitol.

“The system of justice in my view has gone out of control in the effort to clean up corruption, so to speak, in the California Legislature,” said Heller, who expressed surprise that his client was immediately taken into custody.

Defendants in all the other capital corruption cases were given time to report to prison and some were allowed to remain free pending the outcome of their appeal.

Jackson, who lived in Mill Valley and practiced law in San Francisco, also faces loss of his attorney’s license.

Prosecutor Vincent made it clear that the federal corruption probe, begun a decade ago, is ongoing. Eleven other Capitol figures, including Robbins and former state Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier), have been convicted or are awaiting trial in connection with the federal probe.

Jackson’s sentence of 6 1/2 years is similar to Montoya’s. Garcia said he could have sentenced Jackson to a longer term but chose to be lenient because he was impressed by Jackson’s community involvement and letters from 171 backers, including lobbyists and lawmakers.

Vincent said that with time off for good behavior, Jackson could be out in about 5 1/2 years. In addition to the prison time, Jackson must pay a $50,000 fine and submit to supervision for three years once he is released. However, a condition sought by federal parole officials to limit Jackson’s lobbying upon release was dropped by Garcia.

In contrast to Jackson’s sentence, Robbins, who resigned his office in 1991 and pleaded guilty to corruption charges, spent about 18 months in prison and is scheduled to be released from a Hollywood halfway house March 12.

Robbins was the government’s star witness against Jackson and Carpenter. The prosecution relied heavily on tapes Robbins secretly recorded of conversations with Jackson in the summer of 1991 and on his testimony about influence-peddling in the Capitol.

In his testimony, Robbins said Jackson had been bribing him for many years before the undercover investigation. A key piece of the case was a tape of a conversation in which Jackson offered to pay Robbins $250,000 to switch jurisdiction of controversial workers’ compensation legislation to a committee chaired by Robbins.

Prosecutors also pegged much of their case on testimony about an elaborate money-laundering scheme designed to illegally benefit Robbins and his friends.

On Monday, Heller again told reporters that Robbins was not believable. He assailed the former lawmaker as “an absolute, complete scumbag” and said “when you take a man like Alan Robbins and use him as a lever to extort, in my view that’s outrageous government conduct.”

Garcia made only passing reference to Carpenter, 65, once a powerful lawmaker who represented parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

In a letter to Garcia postmarked from the Detroit area, with copies to his lawyer and a Times reporter, Carpenter said: “I find my drive for survival stronger than my sense of obligation to your legal system.”

On Monday, FBI agents were distributing a postcard-size wanted notice with Carpenter’s photograph and a detailed description of the fugitive, who suffers from terminal prostate cancer.

Despite his flight, Carpenter remains entitled to state retirement benefits of $1,842 a month, deposited electronically into a bank account, according to Robert D. Walton, assistant executive director of the Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Legislation passed in the 1970s prevents an indicted fugitive from accruing additional benefits, but once vested a public official cannot have his pension taken away. Such benefits, Walton said, “are contracted rights. They can’t be impaired.”