Sleazy Ex-Judge Reverses Course On 'No Contest' Plea, Goes To Trial & Is Convicted Of Defrauding Couple By Selling Them Home Using Contract For Deed & Failing To Pay Existing Mortgage; Gets 9-Year Suspended Sentence, Promises To Pay Restitution

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports:

• Former El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos received a nine-year suspended sentence, five years’ probation and was ordered to pay restitution after defrauding a couple in a Chaparral, New Mexico, property deal.
  
  Cobos will begin the probation after he completes his four-year sentence on a 2013 federal corruption charge for accepting bribes while he was the El Paso county judge.
  
  He could be released on that charge as early as October, depending on credit for good time served, defense attorney Joshua Boone said.
  
  Cobos faced a maximum of nine years in prison in the Chaparral embezzlement case. He was found guilty of one count of embezzlement over $20,000 earlier this month.
  
  During the sentencing in Las Cruces District Court on Friday, Judge Marci Beyer agreed to defer the sentence so Cobos could begin paying restitution to the victims earlier.
  
  Cobos was accused of failing to use payments he received from a couple in a land and home deal in Chaparral to pay the mortgage on the property.
  
  Maribel Samaniego and Jesus "Mike" Zamora testified earlier this year that they paid Cobos monthly payments of $506 from September 2009 to May 2013 for the property, located in the 300 block of Oasis Drive in Chaparral. They also paid a lump sum of $20,000 in several payments as part of another contract between them and Cobos involving the property.
  
  The couple said they believed Cobos would sign the property's deed over to them and that the money was being used to pay the mortgage.
  
  They said they stopped paying in June 2013 when the bank holding the mortgage said the property was subject to foreclosure and that no payment had been made on the mortgage since December 2012.
  
  The restitution Cobos must pay depends on whether the couple can acquire the property, which is in foreclosure.
  
  If they don't acquire it, Cobos must pay them $28,675.60, the amount the couple had paid him.
  
  If they do acquire it, either before the foreclosure process ends or at auction, Cobos must pay them the fair market value of the property — estimated at $90,000 – minus the $28,765.60 they have paid him, minus what they paid to get the property.
  
  Boone said he hopes Cobos will be able to find a job and be able to start paying restitution after he gets out of prison. He called the sentence “fair.”
  
  Doña Ana County District Attorney Mark D’Antonio attended the sentencing, at one point arguing for prison time for Cobos.
  
  “I thought it was important for the district attorney to be involved in a white color crime and demonstrate we take these cases very seriously,” D’Antonio, who is running for re-election this year, said after the hearing. “White collar crime is not a victimless crime. It has severe consequences.”
  
  Beyer argued against prison time if the victims primarily want to “be made whole” through restitution, noting prison time would prevent Cobos from paying restitution.
  
  Beyer asked Samaniego about her preference.
  
  “We want to be made whole, and, if that’s not possible, then incarceration is what we want to do,” Samaniego told the judge.
  
  Samaniego declined to speak with reporters after the sentencing.
  
  “The loss of money by corrupt individuals has a devastating effect,” D’Antonio said. “Our victim in this case was severely — and her family — damaged.”

Source: Ex-El Paso judge gets 9-year suspended sentence.

For an earlier post on this story, see Already Serving Four Years In Federal Pen For Pocketing Palm Grease, Ex-Judge To Now Take 'No Contest' Plea (Unloaded Home Belonging To Deceased Stepmom, Using Contract For Deed To Collect Monthly Payments While Failing To Pay Existing Mortgage, Leaving Unwitting Buyer-Couple Facing Foreclosure After Having Made At Least $20K In Payments).