Goland Gets Jail Term for Illegal Campaign Gift

Michael R. Goland, a Los Angeles businessman and fervent pro-Israel political contributor in a series of U.S. Senate campaigns, was sentenced to three months in “a jail-like facility” Monday for making an illegal contribution designed to help reelect Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) in 1986.

U.S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew, in giving Goland one of the few prison sentences issued for a misdemeanor violation of making an unlawful donation, said he meant to make Goland an example to deter others from such offenses.

The judge also ordered Goland to perform 1,000 hours of community service.

Lew ordered Goland to report for incarceration Aug. 31, although he said he would consider a motion from the defendant’s attorney, Seth Waxman, to delay the sentence while the case is appealed. Lew’s reference to a “jail-like facility” could open the way for a term in a federal conservation camp or other halfway-type institution.

The contribution that led to Goland’s prosecution was an indirect one. Court testimony showed he gave $120,000 to a third-party American Independent candidate, Edward B. Vallen, in an attempt to siphon votes away from Republican Ed Zschau, Cranston’s main opponent, and thus reelect Cranston.

Federal election laws prohibit an individual from giving more than $1,000 to a candidate in a general election campaign , unless it is spent independently.

Cranston has long been a supporter of Israel, while Goland suspected that Zschau was anti-Israel. In the tightly contested election, Vallen, aided by advertisements he bought with the Goland contribution, got 109,516 votes, about 5,000 more than the margin by which Cranston defeated Zschau.

There was no evidence that Cranston was involved in Goland’s effort. In earlier campaigns, Goland gave more than $1 million to defeat Sen. Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.), a critic of Israeli policies, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect Sen. Chic Hecht (R-Nev.) and others he considered pro-Israel.

Describing a last-minute pre-sentencing letter from Goland, Lew said he could see many parallels between his own life and Goland’s, both sons of immigrants and both devoted to causes they deeply believed in.

Lew said that unlike himself, Goland had “lost his direction” when he decided to violate campaign laws and that the issue was important to the integrity of the American political system.

Goland and his attorney refused to release a copy of the letter and no copy was given to prosecutors. Lew’s clerk, Helena Fagan, said the letter was “a personal communication” to the judge from the defendant that would not be made public.

Remarks about the letter by Goland’s attorney and the judge indicated that Goland had acknowledged violating election laws and expressed some contrition.

The federal jury that convicted Goland on May 3 on the election violation charge, after an earlier hung jury, also acquitted him on four counts of conspiracy and making false statements. It deadlocked on a felony false statement count.

Lew said that while he believed Goland was “generally a good person,” he was convinced Goland had either lied or colored the truth several times during his testimony.