Former CA state assemblyman sentenced to prison at age 79 for money laundering

OAKLAND — After saying it would “send the wrong message” to give the defendant a break due to his old age and health problems, a federal judge sentenced former State Assemblyman Terry Goggin to a year in federal prison for money laundering.

Goggin, 79, offered an apology to the court and has offered to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars that his former business partners lost when he siphoned money away from coffee shop projects in San Francisco. U.S. District Judge James Donato, who handed down the sentence Wednesday morning, brushed off the defense argument that a prison term would be “a death sentence” for the elderly ex-politician.

Donato said it would “send the wrong message” to others thinking of committing a financial crime if Goggin didn’t go to prison.

“It’s dangerously close to saying, ‘If you commit a crime over 75 and you have health problems don’t worry you don’t go to jail,'” Donato said. “I don’t buy it … If there was anyone who knew this was wrong it was this defendant.”

Donato also brushed off Goggin’s pledge to pay restitution as “a completely empty gesture,” noting that the defendant “doesn’t have two pennies to rub together.”

“Anybody can agree to pay money they don’t have,” Donato said. He later added, “I fully expect his victims won’t see a single dollar.”

Goggin was convicted of money laundering through a plea deal last year. The charge stems from Goggin’s business, the Metropolitan Coffee and Concession Company, which received $685,000 in investments to build Peets Coffee shops at the Civic Center and Balboa Park BART stations. Instead, Goggin used the money to fund his “personal life in New York City,” including cash withdrawals, trips to Thailand, and cab fares, prosecutors said.

Goggin’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Hanni Fakhoury, argued that Goggin losing his license to practice law, being convicted of a felony, receiving “negative press,” and dealing with the shame of his own actions was punishment enough. He all but begged Donato not to hand down a prison sentence, saying that he wouldn’t object to 500 hours of community service or a lengthy house arrest sentence.

“I have a lot of serious concerns that even a minimal custodial sentence … would be effectively a death sentence for Mr. Goggin,” Fakhoury said. “Even if he doesn’t ultimately die that it would lead to serious health complications.”

Donato allowed Goggin until June to report to prison to give him time to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Fakhoury also said that Goggin’s crimes, committed in 2013, were practically “a lifetime away.”

But Goggin’s victims don’t seem to agree. One of them delivered an emotional statement at a recent court hearing that “this is a wrong that has not yet been righted for him,” assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lloyd-Lovett said in court.

Goggin, a Democrat, launched a failed Congressional bid in the early 1970s but was elected to the state Legislature in 1974 and served until he lost a re-election race a decade later. In 1981, his political ally at the time, then-Speaker Willie Brown, appointed Goggin to the Criminal Justice Committee, his third and final stint as a committee chairman.

Goggin apologized in court Wednesday, saying that he takes full responsibility and that his legacy has been destroyed “by my own hand.”

“I’m humbled by what lies ahead in the short time I have left and I want to dedicate the rest of my life to the service of others. I accept that I must be punished for my actions,” he said.