HERTZBERG HAD PART IN PARDON FLAP.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

State Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg urged then-President Clinton to grant executive clemency to a former Encino cocaine dealer, the lawmaker's office confirmed Thursday.

The disclosure came on the same day that two leading mayoral candidates came under fire from civil rights groups for asking Clinton to release Carlos Vignali.

Meanwhile, campaign records reviewed by the Daily News show that Vignali's father - Horacio Vignali - has donated at least $140,000 to mostly Democratic politicians and their political organizations since the arrest and conviction of his son in 1994 for his role in distributing some 800 pounds of crack cocaine.

``The spirit of executive pardons is to be fairly applied to all,'' said Dan Macallair, vice president of the Justice Policy Institute, a San Francisco-based justice watchdog group. ``It should not be for sale.''

Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, wrote to Clinton on Dec. 7, recommending ``your immediate consideration of approval'' of Carlos Vignali's request for his sentence to be commuted, according to a copy of the letter released by his office.

``It is time to return Carlos Vignali to his family and again, become a productive member of society,'' he wrote.

Hertzberg declined to comment. His spokesman Paul Hefner said he did not know who had approached Hertzberg to petition the president.

Besides Hertzberg, others who sent letters to Clinton include Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, the latter two among the leading candidates for mayor of Los Angeles.

On Jan. 20, his last day in office, Clinton set the younger Vignali free by commuting his sentence.

``How do you reconcile these actions?'' said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the National Alliance for Positive Action, a Los Angeles-based civil rights group. ``We call on our elected officials to give the same attention to those who can't afford to make large political contributions.''

Becerra and a political committee he controls called Leadership of Today and Tomorrow received some $15,000 in donations from the elder Vignali, mostly last year. The congressman took a leading role in contacting the White House to review the case and consider a commutation of sentence.

While acknowledging that Vignali family members are close friends, Becerra insists that he urged Clinton to review the case for the sake of fairness at the request of Horacio Vignali.

``I wrote a letter to the president requesting further investigation of the Vignali case to assure justice was served and I placed calls to the White House and U.S. Department of Justice to check on the status of this request,'' Becerra said.

Villaraigosa, who says he ``regrets'' sending the letter, received at least $275 from Horacio Vignali.

Hertzberg has known the elder Vignali since before being elected to the Assembly in 1996, and was moved by the man's belief in the innocence of his son, said Hefner.

The only record of a Vignali contribution to Hertzberg, Hefner said, was $4,000 in 1995.

While there is nothing illegal with the communications, some are raising questions of the appropriateness of large political donors having access to high-ranking public officials.

``People are outraged by this,'' said Bob Stern, president of The Center for Governmental Studies, a Santa Monica-based political watchdog group. ``How many parents of other convicted criminals have this kind of access?''

Carlos Vignali had served more than six years of a 15-year sentence after being convicted in Minnesota for his role in an interstate drug ring. Vignali, a onetime Encino resident, is still subject to five years of probation.

Other Los Angeles figures who supported Vignali include former Democratic Congressman Esteban Torres, Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and state Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, who is running for the City Council seat in the 1st District. Mahony apologized Monday for his intervention.

Horacio Vignali, a mechanic and owner of a used-auto shop in downtown Los Angeles, had close ties to many local Latino politicians and hosted fund-raiser meals in a parking lot he owned across the street from Staples Center, with one as recently as last June for Becerra, said one political insider.

Some other big donations made by Horacio Vignali since 1998 include $48,400 to Gov. Gray Davis and $35,000 to the Democratic Party and various Democratic officeholders in California.