Insurance Leaders to Testify Against Lobbyist, Jury Told

SACRAMENTO — In opening arguments of a political corruption trial, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday that several insurance executives will testify that their Capitol lobbyist, Clayton R. Jackson, asked them for sizable checks in 1991 to bribe then-Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys).

Assistant U.S. Atty. Matthew G. Jacobs contended that the testimony of the workers’ compensation insurance officials in the trial of Jackson and former Sen. Paul B. Carpenter, a Democrat from Downey, would support what jurors would be able to hear for themselves in conversations secretly recorded in 1991 by Robbins, acting as a government informant.

The insurance executives “never did come up with the money,” Jacobs said, but it was enough that Jackson offered Robbins a $250,000 bribe for his help in defeating a workers’ compensation bill.

“This is a case about political bribery, about money for votes,” the prosecutor told the panel of six men and six women. “It’s also about how bribe money is hidden.”

Jacobs said the insurance executives would testify that Jackson was telling them that he “needed money right away”--at the same time that the lobbyist was talking to Robbins about bribes.

However, Jackson’s attorney, Donald H. Heller, in his first statement to the jury said that the tapes and other evidence should be interpreted in an entirely different way--as attempts by Robbins, acting as a government agent, to extort cash from Jackson.

“Clay Jackson will be on that stand and he will tell you what really happened in his relationship with Alan Robbins,” Heller said. “It wasn’t about bribery (by Jackson). It was about extortion (by Robbins).”

As a result of Robbins’ taping of Jackson and testifying against others, the defense attorney said, the ex-lawmaker will soon be released from prison after serving only two years instead of 10 on corruption charges.

Heller repeatedly painted Robbins as the villain, someone who has admitted lying, destroying documents and coaching others to testify falsely.

“You may live a very long time,” he said, “But you will never, ever meet someone the likes of Alan Robbins.”

Jackson and Carpenter were named in February in a 12-count indictment charging them with racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction of justice.

Robbins, who pleaded guilty to racketeering, tax evasion and bank fraud, is expected to be the government’s lead-off witness today once Heller and Carpenter’s attorney, Charles F. Bloodgood, complete their opening statements.

It was clear Tuesday that the two sides in the trial, which is expected to last five weeks or more, plan to offer differing interpretations of the secret tape recordings made by Robbins while he was acting as a government informant.

Prosecutor Jacobs said the government would be playing a composite tape from several conversations, calling it “a greatest hits” recording, allowing jurors to listen to the last in a series of five bribe attempts that Jackson is charged with making to Robbins.

When Jacobs finished outlining the prosecution’s case, Heller jumped to his feet and charged toward the jury in apparent eagerness to begin his defense of the powerful lobbyist.

“I couldn’t wait for this opportunity to do something that Clay Jackson has been itching to do since Alan Robbins made these charges,” he began, as he launched into an attack on Robbins.

Heller reminded the jury that the mixing of money and politics is not a crime. “As unsavory as it may appear, (it) is a fact of life in American politics,” he said. “I don’t like it. Clay Jackson doesn’t like it, and you may not like it.”