LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A South Texas justice of the peace has pleaded guilty to extortion and admitted to taking a bribe from a bail bondsman.
Ricardo Rangel is a justice of the peace for Webb County Precinct 2. A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office says the 48-year-old Laredo man accepted a $250 brive from a bail bondsman in return for granting a $1,000 surety bail bond for a drunken-driving defendant.
Rangel could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined up to $250,000. No sentencing date has been set.
