A former county commissioner and a former justice of the peace have been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution for bribery in an ongoing probe of public corruption in their corruption-plagued South Texas border county.
A federal judge in Del Rio sentenced former Maverick County Precinct 3 Commissioner Jose Luis Rosales to 5 1/2 years in prison for taking a bribe, while former Maverick County Justice of the Peace Cesar Iracheta got 7 years and 10 months in prison for paying a bribe. Each could have gotten up to 10 years in prison.
Rosales took kickbacks after manipulating bidding on Maverick County construction contracts in 2012. Iracheta, who also had a construction business, paid up to $10,000 to a county commissioner in return for construction contracts worth about $49,000.