DOWIE, STODDARD SENTENCES DELAYED.

Byline: BETH BARRETT Staff Writer

A federal judge said Monday he's inclined to give ``significant time'' to two former Fleishman-Hillard executives convicted of defrauding the city's Department of Water and Power and other clients.

In delaying sentencing until Jan. 30 to allow to allow presentation of mitigating factors, U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess said he tentatively agreed with prosecutors' calculations of five years for Doug Dowie, who ran the agency's L.A. office, and more than three years for John Stodder, a top assistant. But he left open a final determination.

Defense attorneys, who have sought probation, cautioned that the judge's comments were made before he agreed to hear a motion disputing the amount of fraudulent losses, and possibly other arguments involving additional witnesses and documentation.

Tom Holliday, representing Dowie from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, noted Feess' comments were preliminary.

``I'd prefer the entire matter be heard before it's prejudged what the court intends to do,'' Holliday said.

Jan Handzlik, the Howrey lawyer representing Stodder, cautioned against placing too much emphasis on Feess's tentative sentencing remarks.

``Once he hears all the evidence, I feel his decision will be based on it, and I think that will be below the guideline range,'' Handzlik said. ``It's difficult to read too much into it when the loss is in dispute.''

Under federal guidelines, Dowie faced up to 240 years and Stodder up to 225 years in prison.

The anticlimactic delay came before a packed court room, including family, friends and former city and state officials who came to witness the punishment phase in the bill padding scandal that grew out of a sweeping investigation into City Hall corruption.

Feess said he would allow defense attorneys to cross examine FBI Special Agent Dane B. Costley on a declaration in which he calculated the fraudulent losses caused by Dowie at $522,000 and Stodder's at just over $306,600.

The defense claims there was no loss, and that it is the government's ``burden'' to prove its claims.

The judge said, out of ``an abundance of caution'' in developing a record that could go to an appellate court, he would listen to the defense arguments, but warned they could face legal and factual obstacles.

Feess said he was convinced during the five-week trial last year that prosecutors proved their case and he would have reached the same conclusion as the jurors did.

``There's little to be said about the verdicts themselves,'' he said.

Jurors who convicted Dowie and Stodder of conspiracy and wire fraud said they were convinced by the accumulation of evidence, including an exchange of e-mails Jan. 6, 2003, when Dowie asked Stodder how much they could ``pad'' the DWP account with ambiguous counseling'' for then-Mayor James Hahn and two former-ranking utility officials.

A juror said the e-mails -- including one where Stodder cautioned Dowie that adding $30,000 to the DWP's bill for December 2002 was more than the ``system could bear'' -- helped crystalize the issue.

Prosecutors called 15 witnesses, including two testifying under immunity, in addition to the e-mails and billing records, during the trial that ended May 16. Steve Sugerman, a former senior vice president at the firm, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a deal with prosecutors in which he testified against Dowie.

Neither Dowie nor Stodder took the stand.

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

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