Fast fall (updated)

Three years ago, Phil Hamilton was a major player in Virginia's General Assembly and the heir-apparent to command of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls state government's purse strings.

Last week, Hamilton was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison for bribery and extortion convictions.

His political friends and foes are both at a loss to reconcile Hamilton the felon with the wonkish Republican lawmaker who came to work before sunrise and seemed so ethically meticulous that he would list gift coffee mugs on his economic disclosure forms.

"I can't understand it, I really can't," said Del. Johnny Joannou, a conservative Democrat from Portsmouth who toiled many a wee hour with Hamilton on conference committees to determine Virginia's multibillion-dollar budgets.

At the sentencing, supporters said he was a man of "integrity" who had been the General Assembly's leading advocate for the mentally disabled. The judge allowed Hamilton to remain free until Sept. 19, when he will report to a still-undetermined federal prison. In the federal system, inmates are required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence, which means Hamilton could be released after about eight years.

Hamilton, 59, crossed what should have been a clear line when he shepherded a $500,000 budget amendment for a teacher training center at Old Dominion University through the complex and treacherous appropriations process, then solicited a $40,000-a-year job there.

Now, he is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 12. Federal prosecutors are seeking to land him in prison for more than 12 1/2 years, but he contends sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of 6 1/2 to 8 years, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

His lawyer, Andrew M. Sacks, has asked a U.S. District Court judge to impose an even lower term, given Hamilton's "long lifetime of achievement and service, honest government, good-faith contributions to the citizens of the Commonwealth, strong family ties and support, and other highly positive attributes."

Hamilton's misdeeds were mostly laid out in e-mails written on his state legislative account and obtained by reporters under the Freedom of Information Act. Legislative colleagues said Hamilton's actions provided low-hanging fruit for federal prosecutors. Hamilton "betrayed a trust placed in him both by the citizens of this Commonwealth and his fellow legislators," prosecutors said.

A far-reaching trust

Hamilton's case is a rare exposure of corruption in the Virginia legislature: He is the only delegate convicted on a corruption charge in the past three decades.

That's because Virginia has no restrictions on gifts legislators can receive, as long as they are disclosed to the public. Thus, corruption charges are successful only in the most obvious of cases.

"There's a culture in Virginia that we theoretically trust our legislators," said Dr. Robert Roberts, a professor of political science at James Madison University.

Hamilton was, by bipartisan consensus, the House's resident expert on mental health issues, and one of the most effective and forceful advocates for reforms in the state's woeful system of treatment for the intellectually disabled during his tenure. His expertise and clout as vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee allowed him to increase funding, even in budget-cutting years, for community treatment of those with mental and developmental disabilities.

And it was Hamilton who sought better state mental health crisis intervention long before a mentally disturbed Virginia Tech student who had slipped through the cracks in the mental health system shot 32 people dead and killed himself as police closed in on the Blacksburg campus in April 2007. Hamilton's ideas quickly became a prominent part of mental health reforms enacted overwhelmingly in response to the massacre.

"It's tragic in that he did a lot of good, especially with mental health issues, that Virginians still benefit from today, but that's not what he will be remembered for," said Kirk Cox of Colonial Heights, leader of the House's Republican majority who became Appropriations vice chairman with Hamilton's downfall.

"It's not that hard to see," Cox said. "If you get to the point where you even have to ask the question, `Is this right or wrong?' then you have your answer."

Even the Democrat who unseated Hamilton in 2009 after the emerging scandal weakened him can't fathom how far and how fast he fell. Del. Robin Abbott recalled feeling a sad injustice at Hamilton's absence from a recent groundbreaking for a new hospital near Williamsburg, realizing that the good he did will be forgotten.

"I remember the disappointment of that moment because if it weren't for Phil, this facility would not be built," said Abbott, who won 54 percent of the vote over Hamilton in the Newport News district he represented for 22 years.

"It's a sad day for the commonwealth to see this happen because we need to have trust in our public officials, and when we lose that trust, it causes chaos throughout the entire system," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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