Kohring should apologize to voters

It seems the long, sad story of Vic Kohring may finally come to an end this week. After years of allegations, a trial, conviction, incarceration, reversal of conviction and motions for a new trial, the former longtime Mat-Su Valley state legislator will finally plead guilty Friday.

His case began in 2006 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched his office, and Kohring has asserted his innocence since his May 2007 arrest in a wide-sweeping government probe into corruption by Alaska’s state and federal lawmakers.

After more than 12 years in the state Legislature, he said he stepped down to focus on his legal defense.

As is the norm for federal charges, the full facts of Kohring’s case didn’t emerge until trial.

But the evidence presented against him was damning. Jurors saw a video of Kohring accepting a wad of cash from Bill Allen, owner and founder of the now-defunct oilfield services company VECO. As he pocketed the bills, jurors heard Kohring ask Allen what he could do for him in the Legislature.

We still believe the exchange of cash was a bribe, and now Kohring has changed his plea to acknowledge responsibility for his actions.

In his first trial, jurors found Kohring guilty on three of four bribery and extortion charges, and he was in a California penitentiary serving a three-and-a-half-year term when word came down that he’d won a reprieve.

Prosecutors working on another wing of the wide-ranging investigation into state corruption withheld evidence during the trial of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

But while Kohring was sprung from prison, he wasn’t off the hook. The federal government proceeded, really until this week, as if a second trial was on the horizon.

Now Kohring’s guilty plea to a single felony count may close this sordid chapter in Alaska history.

Kohring was originally sentenced on three counts and now will face sentencing on one count. Given this simple math, it seems likely the judge will decide Kohring has served enough time and allow him to walk out of court a free man, but required for a time to check in with a parole officer.

That’s fine with us, but there is something we’d like from Kohring.

We don’t think Kohring was a corrupt, power-mad lawmaker eager to sell his influence to the highest bidder. We think he was a naïve man caught up in sinister business doings beyond his ken.

In addition to Kohring’s responsibility to satisfy the court’s sentence against him, he also owes another debt to Mat-Su Borough residents.

For more than a decade, we elected Kohring to represent us in the Alaska Legislature. He betrayed that public trust first by accepting that bribe and for four and a half years, Kohring told us all he was innocent before finally pleading guilty.

For that, he owes residents of the Mat-Su Borough and all of Alaska a sincere — and prompt — apology.