SENTENCES OF 3-PLUS YEARS, PROBATION GIVEN IN COP STING

Although Alfred Valdes was among the youngest of 10 law officers
arrested last year in a FBI sting targeting police corruption, the
baby-faced patrolman proved himself the least naive.

When first approached by an undercover agent posing as a drug
smuggler, the 28-year-old demanded the purported trafficker remove his
shirt to prove that he wasn't a law officer wearing a recording device.

No wire lurked under the shirt, so Valdes heard the agent out. But
when it came time to seal the deal " to ride shotgun over a cocaine
shipment " Valdes never showed.

"He thought something seemed screwy," said his defense attorney,
Raymond Fuchs.

This gut hunch helped Valdes, now nearly 30, walk out of San Antonio's
federal court today with a sentence of three years probation " the
lightest punishment so far in the city's largest police corruption
case.

By contrast, his former colleague Pete Saenz was sentenced today to
three years and six months in prison " still a relatively lenient
penalty in a case that already has put one officer behind bars for 15
years.

Saenz admitted conspiring with six other patrolmen and a civilian to
guard carloads of what they believed was cocaine but in fact contained
crushed plasterboard prepared by federal agents.

Twice, the 33-year-old escorted shipments weighing a total of 150
kilograms and collected altogether $5,000 for his betrayal of the badge.

For Valdes, intuition came too late to keep him completely out of
trouble. By the time he balked, he already had tapped into
law-enforcement databases and sold the information for $700, believing
the traffickers would use the criminal-history data to screen their
clients.

Valdes pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized use of the
computer, a charge with a maximum penalty of six months in prison. At
Fuchs' request, U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado lowered the
sentence to probation without objection from prosecutors.

Saenz faced up to roughly 11 years in prison. But prosecutors
recommended he receive a five-year sentence, rewarding him in part for
agreeing to testify against his fellow officers.

His lawyer, Chris Gober, argued for still less time, emphasizing that
Saenz had no prior criminal history and that his case hardly deserved
to be sentenced like a typical drug deal.

In court, Saenz addressed Prado in a heartfelt speech full of
remorse.

"What I would like you to understand, your honor, is I am miserable
and cannot forgive myself that I was not stronger," Saenz said.

Outside the courthouse, he seemed equally unforgiving of the agents
who baited him and his badge-wearing buddies.

"The FBI, they're out to get anybody," he said. "They don't care
who " good guys, bad guys."