MCALLEN, Texas—Minutes after a federal judge sentenced
a former Texas sheriff to prison for laundering money received from drug
traffickers, his attorney began preparing an appeal to the sentence.
“I am very embarrassed and ashamed for the actions
that I took and the inactions that led to this,” said Lupe Treviño as he
apologized to fellow cops, the community, the voters and his family. “I am
sorry it happened. I did it.”
U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez told Treviño that
in his position as the top cop in Hidalgo County he should have known better
and disregarded the sentencing recommendations which put his sentence between
37 to 41 months; Alvarez sentenced Trevino to 60 months in prison and assessed
a $60,000 fine in an effort to “restore respect for the law.”
In a matter of minutes, Treviño’s attorney Bobby Joe
Yzaguirre had filed a notice to appeal asking that the case be heard before the
Fifth Court of Appeals. The court document obtained by Breitbart Texas doesn’t
list the reasons for the objections, however a source close to Treviño said he
was upset that Alvarez had ignored the guidelines and the recommendations made
by prosecutors.
“Mr. Treviño did save the taxpayers a lot of money by
entering a guilty plea to the criminal information rather than having the case
tried,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Sturgis during the hearing.
The former sheriff pleaded guilty in April to one
count of money laundering. According to prosecutors, a known drug trafficker
would give money to a former sheriff’s commander who would then give money to
Treviño. The former sheriff then deposited the money into campaign accounts
which prosecutors allege was done to hide the source of the cash.
Treviño had previously claimed his innocence stating
that he never met the drug trafficker, had not done anything wrong and that the
charge came from an error or omission in the campaign report.
Little prick
