Sen. Montoya Found Guilty on Seven Counts

SACRAMENTO — State Sen. Joseph B. Montoya, the first person to stand trial on charges stemming from an FBI investigation of statehouse corruption, was found guilty today of seven counts.

The jury of seven women and five men reached the verdict following 18 hours of deliberation over four days.

He was found guilty of one count of racketeering, one count of money laundering and five counts of extortion. He was found innocent of three counts of extortion.

Montoya seemed to pale when U.S. District Judge Milton Schwartz read the first guilty verdict.

There was no visible reaction from the senator’s wife, Pilar, who sat behind her husband on a courtroom bench. Montoya sat at the defense table between his two attorneys, Michael Sands and Bruce Kelton.

Montoya (D-Whittier), the chairman of the Senate Business and Professions Committee, went on trial Dec. 4 on 12 counts that accused him of racketeering, extortion, bribery and money laundering.

But during the trial Schwartz dismissed the two bribery counts, ruling that the charges did not meet thresholds in federal law.

The racketeering count included bribery allegations, prosecutors said.

Much of the prosecution case against Montoya stemmed from an FBI “sting” operation that began in 1986 and involved legislation that supposedly would have allowed an FBI front company to obtain financing for a Northern California shrimp importing business.

Prosecutors contended that Montoya took a $3,000 payoff from an FBI undercover agent in exchange for helping shepherd the shrimp bill through the Senate in 1988.