Ex-Sen. Carpenter Seized in Costa Rica : Fugitive: The former legislator fled earlier this year after being convicted of political corruption. Prosecutor is confident he will be extradited.

Former state Sen. Paul B. Carpenter, who fled the country earlier this year after his conviction on political corruption charges, was arrested Thursday in Costa Rica.

U.S. Atty. Charles J. Stevens said that Costa Rican authorities found Carpenter living in a condominium in a suburb of that nation’s capital city, San Jose.

Carpenter’s attorney, Charles F. Bloodgood, said the 66-year-old former Democratic lawmaker from Downey apparently expected to be caught, but perhaps not quite so soon.

Bloodgood said he received a vague note some weeks ago in which Carpenter apologized for his flight. Carpenter wrote that his attorney from an unidentified country would contact the Sacramento lawyer “when the FBI catches up with me.”

“I hadn’t expected they would find him so soon,” Bloodgood said. “Paul Carpenter is a very intelligent, resourceful individual. The FBI got him comparatively quickly.”

Bloodgood said he believes that Carpenter left the country with no more than $8,000 in savings and without prospects for additional income. Federal prosecutors last month obtained a court order that in effect cuts off Carpenter’s state pension.

“He wasn’t in very great financial shape,” said Bloodgood, who noted that legal expenses had depleted Carpenter’s savings. “It was a very, very low-budget flight.”

Prosecutor Stevens said his office, working with the U.S. State Department, has asked that Carpenter be held without bail while awaiting extradition.

Stevens was confident that Carpenter would be returned to the United States, where he faces sentencing.

“This is a straightforward, slam-dunk extradition request,” Stevens said, pointing out that the United States has an extradition treaty that has generally been honored by the Costa Rican government.

In February, Carpenter failed to show up at a sentencing hearing after his conviction on 11 counts of extortion, racketeering and conspiracy. He faced a maximum sentence of seven years and three months in prison on those charges, and he was awaiting a retrial in a separate corruption case as well. He is also facing possible charges relating to his flight that could add up to 10 years to his sentence.

After Carpenter fled, he sent a note to federal District Judge Edward J. Garcia saying that he was leaving the country for alternative treatment for terminal prostate cancer. In the handwritten note, Carpenter wrote: “I find my drive for survival stronger than my sense of obligation to your legal system.”

On Thursday, Bloodgood said he always expected that Carpenter would one day voluntarily return for treatment of his disease in California, where he was covered by medical insurance.

After Carpenter’s flight, the FBI issued a postcard-size wanted notice, which it distributed around the world.

Stevens said Carpenter was first spotted in late February, living in a hotel in San Jose under a false name. Earlier this week, when all the necessary papers were filed and Costa Rican authorities moved in for the arrest, Carpenter had checked out of his hotel without leaving a forwarding address.

“We were concerned that he had gotten wind of the extradition request and fled Costa Rica,” Stevens said.

But Costa Rican authorities soon found him again, living in a condominium in a suburb of San Jose, and arrested him.

A source close to Carpenter indicated that he may have felt safe from extradition in the Central American country.

But Stevens said that extradition difficulties are more likely to occur in cases where a fugitive has been accused of a crime but not convicted. “Typically, if the request is based on a conviction, (extradition) should be more streamlined.”

Bloodgood predicted that Carpenter will fight extradition. “He’s looking at a lot of trouble,” he said.