Molina, Hertzberg Wrote Letters for Convict’s Pardon

A Los Angeles businessman waging a six-year campaign to free his drug-dealing son from federal prison persuaded state Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez to write President Clinton late last year, urging Clinton to commute the son’s sentence.

The officials joined six other high-profile politicians with strong ties to the Latino community, and the cardinal of Los Angeles, who all wrote letters for Horacio Carlos Vignali, a gregarious downtown parking lot operator, car dealer and real estate investor who has been active in recent years as a political fund-raiser.

On his last day in office, Clinton ordered the release of Vignali’s son, who had been convicted of conspiring to sell 800 pounds of cocaine.

The commutation drew attention to officials who helped the father in his quest. Some of them said they had never written such appeal letters before.

Why they did so this time appears to be, at least in part, a tribute to the extraordinary persistence and access of Vignali, who spent years badgering elected officials to help him spring his son, Carlos. In 1994, the younger Vignali was convicted in federal court in Minneapolis and sentenced to 14 years, seven months in prison. He was 22 at the time.

Since then, the elder Vignali has given about $152,000 in campaign contributions, including $1,000 to Hertzberg, a Sherman Oaks Democrat with strong ties to Latino politics, public records show. Hertzberg was the Sacramento roommate of former Assembly Speaker and current Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, who also wrote the White House on behalf of Vignali.

Hertzberg’s spokesman, Paul Hefner, said Thursday that the speaker met Vignali in the early 1990s at a community event. Ever since, he said, “Mr. Vignali has expressed profound love for his son.” Hefner said the letter was not related to any campaign contributions.

In his Dec. 7, 2000, letter to Clinton, Hertzberg, an attorney, pointed out that “neither guns, drugs nor drug money was found in Mr. Vignali’s possession.” Prosecutors used wiretap recordings and testimony from informants to win Vignali’s conviction.

Hefner said, “the father was just adamant about his son’s innocence.” Hertzberg was not available for comment.

Hernandez and Molina addressed their letters to Clinton too.

Molina said the Vignali family had neither donated to her campaigns nor raised money for her. She came to know the elder Vignali in the past two or three years, Molina said, because he is a friend of her husband, Ron Martinez, an affirmative action consultant.

She said Vignali made “a constant barrage of requests” to her to write a letter. She said she had been approached before by other parents in similar situations and had declined to write on their behalf. Vignali finally wore her down. “He kept literally begging,” she said Thursday.

As Christmas approached, she said, she agreed but told him it would probably do no good.

Vignali had furnished her with information about his son’s prison record, which she cited in the Dec. 20 letter, calling upon Clinton to consider commuting his sentence.

Molina, who was vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention, said she would not write any more such letters because such cases should be evaluated by judges and prosecutors who know the facts.

Hernandez, who himself pleaded guilty to a cocaine possession charge in 1997, said Thursday that he wrote his Dec. 4 letter because “I understood his [the elder Vignali’s] concern as a father. . . . He [the younger Vignali] had already had done time . . . I thought writing the letter was appropriate.’

Records show the elder Vignali and his family gave $2,500 to Hernandez during his successful 1993 campaign, before Carlos Vignali was arrested. Vignali later hosted the councilman and his staff in a retreat at his Pacific Palisades home.

Hernandez’ letter, like Molina’s, cites Carlos Vignalis’ good prison record, noting he earned his high school equivalency degree and was named “student of the year” while behind bars.

Molina said that, in persuading her to write a letter, the elder Vignali said he had even talked to the governor. A Davis spokesman said Thursday: “We have no requests from [Horacio] Carlos Vignali to write a letter and there were no letters written by Gov. Davis.”

Campaign finance reports show that Vignali held a fund-raiser for Davis in June that raised more than $75,000, including $25,900 from Vignali himself. Vignali had given Davis $23,500 before he became governor.

Other previously reported letters came from:

* Democratic U.S. Rep. and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Xavier Becerra, who wrote Clinton in November, citing the “personal crusade” of the imprisoned Vignali’s parents, who “are dear friends of mine.” The Vignalis have donated more than $5,000 to Becerra’s campaigns.

* Villaraigosa, who wrote the White House pardon secretary in 1996, and who received more than $5,000 from the Vignalis.

* Former U.S. Rep. Esteban E. Torres, who wrote Atty. Gen Janet Reno in 1996 and Clinton in 1998. No contributions were reported to Torres.

* State Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, who wrote the White House pardon secretary in 1996. The Vignalis have given Polanco more than $20,000.

* Former Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, who also wrote the pardon secretary in 1996. The Vignalis had donated $1,500 to his campaigns.

* Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who later expressed regret, calling his letter “a serious mistake.” Villaraigosa and Becerra have also expressed regret about their letters.

* Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who urged only that prison officials move the younger Vignali to a prison closer to Los Angeles. Two years after Baca’s letter, Carlos Vignali was moved to Arizona from the Midwest.