Anchorage Daily News

Bill Weimar, who once ran a lucrative Alaska halfway house business and is now retired and living in Montana, will face a federal judge Wednesday morning for sentencing on two felonies.

Weimar pleaded guilty in August to a role in a scheme to illegally funnel $20,000 in 2004 to a political consultant for an Alaska legislative candidate, knowing that if the candidate won, he would back a private prison long sought by Weimar.

Prosecutors want Weimar, 68, to serve a year. Weimar's lawyer says a sentence of five months' incarceration and five months of home detention, as proposed by the federal probation office, would be fair. But Weimar asks that he be allowed to do five months of community service rather than home detention.

The defense says the volunteer work could be performed through a domestic violence program in Montana, which has offered to allow him to serve as a "Team Leader in a programmed Men's Accountability Group."

In August, Weimar admitted to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as a charge called "structuring financial transactions." Prosecutors say he divided the $20,000 into three payments, each less than $10,000, to avoid U.S. Treasury reporting requirements.

One question before U.S. District Judge John Sedwick will be how to assess Weimar's cooperation with federal authorities so far.

Out of 11 people charged so far in the ongoing federal investigation into Alaska political corruption, five have pleaded guilty, including Weimar. But out of that group, he's the only one who wouldn't sign a formal cooperation agreement. Three -- former Veco Corp. executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith, and former lobbyist Bill Bobrick -- have been key witnesses at trials.

Weimar turned down the offer "not because of any unwillingness to assist the government, but because he did not wish to agree to the provision which would have put any sentencing proceedings on hold indefinitely, pending the outcome of other investigations," according to a sentencing memorandum by his lawyer, David Bukey of Seattle.

Weimar already has told the government what he knows about the candidate and the campaign consultant, the defense memo says.

"He also has provided a narrative history of his associations in Alaska and has answered every question put to him by the prosecutors," Bukey wrote in the court filing. "Whether or not this information will be enough to charge anyone else with criminal offenses remains to be seen and is beyond Mr. Weimar's control."

The defense tried to keep its sentencing memo confidential because of references to Weimar's discussions with prosecutors. But Sedwick rejected that effort last week.

Bobrick is the only one of the cooperating defendants sentenced so far. He was ordered to serve five months in prison and five months of home detention.

Prosecutors say Bobrick's case was different because he had already testified about a scheme to bribe former Rep. Tom Anderson, who was convicted in a trial and is in prison. Weimar should get significantly more time, prosecutors say.

"Weimar's conduct here was serious -- he took deliberate action to illegally fund a State Senate candidate's campaign with the full expectation that this was going to pay off for him in the future once the candidate was elected," prosecutor Joe Bottini said in a sentencing document for the government.

While that might not be exactly the same as a "quid pro quo" scheme with a sitting public official, "his actions and his ultimate goal were nevertheless the same," the prosecutor wrote.

Weimar's lawyer argues that Weimar quickly accepted responsibility and that even a few months in prison would amount to real punishment.

Weimar had only gotten in trouble with the law once before, back in the 1960s when he was a college student protesting a segregated YMCA/YWCA facility in West Virginia, his lawyer wrote.

Weimar now lives in Big Arm, Mont., on the west shore of Flathead Lake.

He contributed $4,600 to the campaign of President-elect Barack Obama. The campaign has said it planned to donate the money to charity.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.

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