Former state legislator Bev Masek says she shouldn't get prison time for her guilty corruption plea, blaming her failings on an overbearing husband, the retirement of her mentor in the Legislature, and her inability to fathom her elected office despite a decade in the job.
Masek is due to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline on her conviction of conspiracy to commit bribery. She admitted accepting $4,000 in 2003 from former Veco Corp. chief executive Bill Allen, an oil-field contractor. According to the charge, she begged for money from Allen and another Veco official, at one point killing a tax bill after Allen complained it would hurt his oil-industry clients, then collecting $2,000 for her effort.
In her bid for leniency, contained in a sentencing memo filed by her public defender last week, Masek argued against the suggestion of prosecutors that she be ordered to prison for 18 to 24 months, the standard sentence for her crime. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but prosecutors said Masek shouldn't be considered for worst-offender status under federal sentencing guidelines.
"Beverly Masek has been an inspirational figure in Alaska," asserted Rich Curtner, her attorney. He cited her completion of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race four times, her graduation from high school in Anvik, and her election by Mat-Su voters as a Republican to the Alaska House for five terms.
But Masek was also "vulnerable" to the suggestions of others, Curtner said.
"At the time of this offense, Ms. Masek was going through a divorce, suffering from major depression, economically devastated, and drinking heavily," Curtner wrote in his memorandum to Beistline.
Masek isn't looking for an excuse, Curtner said, and she has taken responsibility for her crime by pleading guilty and agreeing to interviews with the FBI and prosecutors. At the same time, her personal travails would be better dealt with through home confinement and treatment in a facility like the Ernie Turner Center run by the Cook Inlet Tribal Council in Anchorage, rather than a federal prison in the Lower 48.
Still, Masek blamed much of her troubles on her ex-husband Jan, now a businessman in Panama promoting environmentally sensitive development projects.
"Many of those who knew Jan and Beverly Masek as a couple describe Mr. Masek as a controlling and abusive husband," Curtner wrote. Jan Masek encouraged his wife to take up dog mushing and suggested she run for the state Legislature, Curtner said, but when they divorced he cut off her money.
Jan Masek didn't respond to an e-mail request for comment.
In addition to blaming her husband for her heavy drinking and depression, Curtner cited excerpts from a sealed psychiatric report to bolster his efforts to keep Bev Masek out of prison.
"During Ms. Masek's early years in the Legislature, her mentor was Rep. Ramona Barnes. They formed a close relationship and Ms. Masek took considerable guidance from Ms. Barnes," wrote Dr. Aron Wolf. When voters sent Barnes into retirement in 2000, Masek felt adrift, Wolf said.
Sarah Tugman, an Anchorage lawyer who has known Masek since the early 1990s, said in a letter submitted by Curtner that Masek was lost in Juneau.
"In the legislature, I also think that Beverly was largely controlled by other people," Tugman wrote. "I witnessed her reliance on her aides and other legislators as the job was unfamiliar to her and she was neither sophisticated nor did she have the background education or skills to allow her to be very independent with respect to the issues that she was presented with and with which she was somewhat overwhelmed."
Curtner didn't offer an explanation about why Masek continued to run for an elective office she was apparently unqualified for, but said it was in that atmosphere that she became susceptible to pressure from Allen, a close friend of Barnes.
The attorney described Masek's crimes as less severe than those of other defendants in the wide-ranging Alaska corruption scandal -- in particular those of former Sen. John Cowdery, who also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge.
Cowdery received six months of home confinement, a term just ended, and three years' probation. Prosecutors didn't object to home confinement because of Cowdery's age -- 79 -- and health so poor he had difficulty getting out of a wheelchair.
Curtner said Masek was sick too -- with depression and "a serious alcohol problem."
Raising the issue of race and gender, Curtner added, "It would be a tragic footnote in the Alaska corruption scandal that amidst the storm of corruption in Alaska's legislature, at this point the one person who is serving time in a federal prison is a Native Alaskan woman who was suffering from depression and alcoholism, who accepted four thousand dollars from Bill Allen."
Curtner wasn't entirely correct, though. While other defendants have finished their terms or are free pending resolution of their cases, one other former legislator, Tom Anderson, is about midway through a five-year prison sentence for conspiracy, bribery and money laundering. Two other former legislators, Pete Kott and Vic Kohring, were released from prison in June as they appeal their convictions but could be ordered back or face new trials.
In another development, Kohring's lawyer is seeking a delay in filing a motion on how Kohring's case should proceed. Kott and Kohring were supposed to file their motions by Sept. 28, but Kohring's attorney, John Henry Browne of Seattle, said he is involved in other cases that are demanding his attention. On Tuesday, he asked for a month's delay. U.S. District Judge John Sedwick hasn't yet ruled on that request.
Find Richard Mauer online at adn.com/contact/rmauer or call 257-4345.
By RICHARD MAUER
rmauer@adn.com