Kohring glad to be home, eager to prove innocence

WASILLA — Having been released from prison by order of a federal judge, former state lawmaker Vic Kohring said he’s glad to be home.

“It’s great to be back home in the presence of family and friends in a familiar environment here in Wasilla,” he said, but declined to talk about his case. “I don’t want to discuss guilt or innocence or anything like that at this point.”

Kohring, who served seven terms representing Wasilla, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in May 2008 on bribery, corruption and extortion charges. The next month he surrendered himself at the federal courthouse in Anchorage and was later flown to a federal prison in California.

Now, a federal judge has ordered him released and returned to Alaska. A new trial on the same charges has been ordered.

Speaking by phone Saturday, Kohring said he would love to talk about his case, but his lawyer has advised him not to. He did, however, talk at length about personal issues. He’s been in town a day and a half. He has trouble believing his freedom isn’t a dream and is, for now, focusing on his case.

The legal battle ate up most of his financial resources and he wound up losing his home, so now he’s living with his parents.

“I don’t have a penny to my name at this point. Not complaining, because I’ve got a good future,” he said.

He said spending almost a year in prison was difficult. He did a lot of reading, a lot of letter writing. He took religious classes and studied the Bible. The facility where he was housed in Taft, Calif., near Death Valley was a warehouse-style barracks with cubicles for each prisoner. There were no doors, very little privacy and a lot of noise.

“It was hard to really concentrate. It did work on you a little bit, it got very tiring after awhile,” he said.

Prison food, he said, left a little something to be desired. He lost a lot of weight in prison and said the first thing he did when released was head straight to a restaurant at the airport.

“And man did I eat. I was one hungry dude.”

Though he declined to delve into the legal case when he spoke Saturday, Kohring has long maintained his innocence, saying in letters from prison that he did nothing wrong in accepting money from Bill Allen, the CEO of the now-defunct oil field services company Veco. He wrote that the money was a gift and that he used it to buy things for his daughter.

In most of his letters written from prison, Kohring pointed to overzealous prosecutors and a biased judge as reasons for his conviction.

“There are the manipulations by the presiding judge, his bias regarding his wife (whose job I eliminated and whose department budget I cut by millions), his cover up of critical information at sentencing and his denial of more than 80 witnesses who were eager to tell the jury what really happened,” he wrote.

The issue of his judge’s bias was eventually decided in the judge’s favor. Kohring wrote in letters from prison that he planned to appeal.

Still, all the complaints contained in his letters centered around things that happened at trial. But, in the end, it appears it was something that didn’t happen that sprung him from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney General’s office, which has been looking into the case and to whom Kohring said Saturday he is very grateful.

“The process has uncovered material that, at this stage, appears to be information that should have been, but was not, disclosed to (Kohring) before his trial,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breur wrote in a motion seeking Kohring’s release.

In February of this year, Kohring wrote from prison of an unsuccessful attempt he’d made to receive a pardon from then outgoing president George W. Bush.

“In hindsight, I’m glad I was not pardoned, frankly. I would much prefer to win my appeal, be granted a new trial and prove my innocence. Pardons are most frequently for excusing those who’ve committed crimes and have no other alternative. I have not committed a crime. Thus, in the long run, it will be better for me to go through the trial process again as difficult as it may be,” he wrote.

It appears that, even if not for the reasons he’d hoped, Kohring will get his wish for a second chance to prove his innocence.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.