Former state Sen. Leland Yee, ex-SF school board chief sentenced

Former state Sen. Leland Yee leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse after receiving a five year prison sentence and a $20,000 fine in a federal bribery and corruption case in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. less Former state Sen. Leland Yee leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse after receiving a five year prison sentence and a $20,000 fine in a federal bribery and corruption case in San Francisco, Calif. on ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Former state Sen. Leland Yee, ex-SF school board chief sentenced 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

Former state Sen. Leland Yee, a powerhouse in Bay Area politics for a quarter century and now a convicted felon for taking bribes from undercover agents, stood before a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday, the day of his sentencing, and asked for leniency.

He may have gotten his wish. Although U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer told Yee he wasn’t entitled to leniency, his sentence — five years in prison and a $20,000 fine — was near the bottom of the federal sentencing guidelines, and well below the eight-year term sought by prosecutors.

Yee, dressed immaculately in a dark suit, addressed the judge in a courtroom filled to overflowing.

“Look at my entire life and not just the crimes I have committed,” he said. “In the 67 years of my life, I have devoted much of it to work with communities and the people here in San Francisco and in California.”

The pain he inflicted on his family, friends and constituents, he added, “will always haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Breyer seemed unpersuaded, telling Yee his public service was outweighed by his willingness to trade votes for campaign contributions. His crimes, the judge said, amounted to an “attack on democratic institutions” and a betrayal of the public.

“I don’t feel I should be lenient,” he said.

Yee’s circumstances

But later in the three-hour hearing, which included sentencing for three other defendants, Breyer indicated that he had taken into account Yee’s age, his overall career, and the health of his wife, who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Breyer was tougher with Keith Jackson, 51, a former San Francisco school board president who raised funds for Yee, set up the bribery scheme and admitted taking his own payoffs from agents to traffic in guns and drugs and arrange a supposed murder for hire. Describing Jackson as a “one-person crime wave,” Breyer sentenced him to nine years in prison, one year less than prosecutors had sought.

He then sentenced Jackson’s son, Brandon, to 41/2 years in prison, and sports agent Marlon Sullivan to 51/2 years, for separate racketeering charges. Both men admitted plotting with undercover agents, who posed as criminals, to deal drugs and firearms and take part in the murder-for-hire scheme.

As he sentenced both Keith and Brandon Jackson, Breyer said he was appalled that the father had enlisted his son in a life of crime. In one recorded conversation, the judge said, an undercover agent had asked Keith Jackson whether he wanted to involve Brandon in illegal acts, and the father replied that his son was old enough to make his own decisions.

Parent to parent

“As a parent, I just don’t get it,” Breyer said. “It’s a complete abdication of responsibility to the family.”

Brandon Jackson, 29, and Sullivan, 31, have been in jail since their arrests in March 2014 and remained in custody after sentencing. Yee and Keith Jackson have been free on bail and were given 30 days to turn themselves in. The sentences of each man can be reduced by up to 54 days a year for good behavior in prison.

The prosecution arose from a five-year undercover investigation that targeted a Chinatown community organization, the Ghee Kung Tong, and its leader, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, and yielded charges against 29 defendants.

Chow, the first to go to trial, was convicted last month of running the organization as a racketeering enterprise and murdering its former leader, Allen Leung, in 2006. He awaits sentencing in March and faces a mandatory life term. Federal agents said they encountered Yee through Keith Jackson, who also worked for Chow.

Yee, a child psychologist by training, was first elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in 1988 and served as its president during the second of his two terms, when Jackson was also on the board. Yee won election to the Board of Supervisors from the Sunset District in 1996 and left in the middle of his second term to run successfully for the Assembly, where he became part of the Democratic leadership.

He won the first of his two state Senate terms in 2006, representing parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of San Francisco in 2011 and was running for secretary of state, California’s top elections officer, when he was arrested in April 2014. He suspended his campaign but still finished third in the primary election, with more than 9 percent of the vote.

Gun-control advocate

One of Yee’s causes as a legislator was gun control. But in his guilty plea, Yee admitted agreeing in a March 2014 meeting with Jackson, an undercover agent and the now-deceased Wilson Lim, a Daly City dentist and Yee supporter, to illegally import weapons, including automatic firearms, from the Philippines. Yee said the agent paid him $6,800 in cash.

Breyer told Yee on Wednesday that his willingness to traffic in guns, while publicly trumpeting his support for gun control, was “inexplicable ... hypocritical ... the most venal thing and the most dangerous thing you’ve done.”

Pay to play

Yee also acknowledged that over a period of nearly three years, in exchange for purported campaign contributions, he arranged a meeting between a donor and another state senator to discuss marijuana legislation; agreed to recommend another campaign contributor’s software company for a state contract; promised to vote for legislation restricting workers’ compensation payments to injured National Football League players; and agreed to sponsor a state Senate resolution honoring Chow’s Ghee Kung Tong.

The racketeering charge was punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but judges usually follow the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s guidelines. In arguing for an above-guideline sentence of eight years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Badger told Breyer that Yee had “abused (public) faith and trust, and in the worst possible way. It was to retain power.”

But the judge agreed with defense lawyer James Lassart that prosecutors had failed to show that Yee had accepted more than $60,000 in bribes — he admitted accepting $44,000 — or had agreed to smuggle more than 200 firearms. Failing to exceed those thresholds reduced the sentencing guideline range to 57 to 71 months in prison, and Yee’s five-year term falls within that range.

Sobbing could be heard from members of Jackson’s family as he was sentenced.

“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Jackson, who wore a light brown suit, said in a brief statement to the judge. “I know I could have walked away, and I should have walked away, but I didn’t.”

“You are an intelligent person who rose out of a difficult situation to become a leader in your community, so your conduct after that was perplexing,” Breyer replied, referring to Jackson’s upbringing in the Western Addition neighborhood. “You were willing to do anything, assuming there was some compensation.”

Jackson’s lawyers had argued for a six-year sentence and said he had been manipulated by federal agents. Speaking to reporters afterward, Jackson seemed willing to accept some of the blame but not all of it.

“It’s tough. I’m going to serve my time and come out a better person,” Jackson said as he waited for friends and family to leave the courthouse. “I did some things, and the government did some things. There’s responsibility on both sides.”

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Steve Rubenstein contributed to this report.

Bob Egelko and Kale Williams are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com, kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko @sfkale