ALFONSO CHARDY Herald Staff Writer

A teary-eyed, suspended Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez received a stiff 10-year prison sentence Tuesday, but probably won't begin serving it for months or possibly years because he will remain free while appealing.

U.S. District Judge James W. Kehoe imposed the severe sentence in response to prosecution requests that he make an example of Martinez to deter public corruption. But Kehoe also allowed Martinez to remain free for the duration of his appeal.

That could be a long time because Martinez's attorneys said they will go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if the appeals court in Atlanta rejects their petition to throw out the conviction.

Martinez, convicted in March on six counts of extorting close to $1 million from developers in exchange for zoning favors, broke into tears after pleading for leniency from the judge.

But Kehoe's sentence, while much lower than the 20 years Martinez could have received on each count, went beyond federal sentencing guidelines for extortion. Those guidelines recommend terms of only two or three years.

The judge said he was making an example out of a once powerful official who had gone astray.

"Raul Martinez represented many things to many people," Kehoe said. "He represented something special to the Latin community. We can only wonder what he could have accomplished in public office."

Martinez's attorneys criticized the sentence.

"It's outrageous in its severity," defense attorney Evelyn Greer said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Chaykin, who asked for 10 years, said the sentence would serve as a warning that corruption will not be tolerated.

"The sentence here today is a message not just to Raul Martinez but to all public officials not to be tempted to be above the law," he said.

Martinez, in a court statement and in remarks to reporters after the sentencing, suggested that the punishment was unfair.

"I'm innocent," he said. "I'm not guilty of the crimes I was charged with. I didn't commit any crimes."

Martinez also said that the entire legal process against him over the past 15 months was punishment enough.

"I think the 15 months that I've had to get through, there could be no worse punishment," Martinez said in his court statement, choking back tears.

"My career stopped. The so-called rising star was stopped. If you add all of that, it's been a living hell."

James Jay Hogan, Martinez's lead defense attorney, is planning to file an appeal soon, setting in motion a process that could take several months, if not years.

He said that if his appeal is rejected by the Atlanta court, he will go to the Supreme Court.

Martinez, 42, agreed in court that if he loses his appeals, he will surrender voluntarily to begin serving his sentence at a still-to-be-determined facility.

Debby Kearney, deputy general counsel to Gov. Lawton Chiles, said Tuesday that the governor will not formally remove Martinez from office until he exhausts his appeals. In the meantime, Julio Martinez, no relation, will continue to serve as acting mayor. Raul Martinez's current term in office doesn't expire until November 1993.

Martinez's 10-year sentence was harsher than the punishment meted out last year to the mayor and two council members in Sweetwater. They, like Martinez, were convicted of extortion.

U.S. District Judge Edward B. Davis sentenced Mayor Irain Gonzalez and Councilman Antonio Duran to two years and three months and Councilwoman Carmen Menendez to two years and six months.

Martinez's sentence saddened and embittered his supporters in Hialeah. But they clung to hope that the appeals would clear him.

"I'm a firm believer in the judicial system of this country," said Hialeah Councilman Herman Echevarria, a Martinez ally. "It gives him the right to appeal. The process is not over as far as I'm concerned."

Councilman Alex Morales, a staunch Martinez supporter, said: "It's a sad day when someone who has served the city for so long to find himself in this situation. Obviously, the goal was to get to Raul. They got what they wanted."

Councilman Roberto Ruiz, a Martinez critic who runs a small newspaper in Hialeah, had someone at the courthouse waiting for the sentence.

"When something bad happens to someone, you don't rejoice," Ruiz said. "I can't feel good about anyone going to jail."

In court, Hogan asked the judge to let Martinez serve his sentence at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle, where the federal government operates a so-called "country club prison."

By imposing the tough prison sentence, Kehoe rejected a defense proposal that he sentence Martinez to community service.

Martinez's attorneys and Sergio Pino, president of the Latin Builders Association who testified for Martinez at the sentencing hearing, outlined an ambitious community service project under which Martinez would have helped Hialeah's black community.

Pino said that if Kehoe sentenced Martinez to community service, the Latin Builders Association would help Martinez build low-income housing for residents of Seminola, Hialeah's predominantly black neighborhood.

Donald Scott, executive director of the Seminola Community Development Corp., said Martinez would purchase the land and help supervise construction.

Kehoe rejected the plan, which the prosecution characterized as ironic in light of Martinez's conviction on charges of extorting almost $1 million from developers in exchange for zoning favors for housing projects.

"It would be a travesty of justice to sentence Raul Martinez to community service," Chaykin said.

Martinez's sentencing capped a lengthy legal process that began six years ago when federal prosecutors opened a corruption investigation of Hialeah officials.

The investigation culminated with Martinez's indictment in April 1990 on eight counts of racketeering and extortion.

Martinez's trial, which began Jan. 22, ended March 26 when a federal jury convicted him on six of the eight counts.

Herald staff writer Aminda Marques Gonzalez contributed to this report.