By Jeff Proctor
Albuquerque Journal
BERNALILO COUNTY, N.M. — Former Bernalillo County house arrest liaison Vince Peele was sentenced Friday to five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service and ordered to pay $1,500 for taking bribes to get inmates out of jail and into the house arrest program, according to court records.
A six-year prison sentence was deferred by 13th District Judge Louis McDonald, court records state.
Peele pleaded guilty in December to charges of demanding or receiving a bribe by a public officer or public employee and acceptance of a bribe by a witness, both third-degree felonies punishable by up to three years each. He also pleaded guilty to performing an official act for personal financial interest between May 26 and Aug. 20, 2009.
Although the crimes were committed in the Bernalillo Countybased 2nd Judicial District, McDonald was assigned to the case after Albuquerque judges recused themselves.
Peele, 50, was a central member of the Community Custody Program, or CCP, which allows up to 500 pre-trial detainees or prisoners serving time on nonviolent convictions to leave jail under restrictions, including wearing an electronic ankle bracelet. He would often speak with judges about which inmates should be placed in the program.
Peele, who had been with the county 23 years, was arrested in June 2010 but remained on the payroll in a different job or on paid leave until he was indicted in December 2010.
Prosecutors said Peele is the highest ranking official to be charged in the probe. Peele gave a detailed statement to members of a joint law enforcement task force when he was arrested, they said.
According to the criminal complaint, Peele charged on a sliding scale and performed services other than just making recommendations to the program. For instance, he charged a confidential informant $1,000 cash for a placement on the CCP program but charged $500 to interfere with a urinalysis required by a defendant so the sample wouldn’t show use of controlled substances.
The confidential informant aiding task force officers taped interactions with Peele during which the informant confided that he had missed six court dates and was worried about being sent back to jail.
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal