EX-ASSISTANT DA SENTENCED

LAREDO -- A former assistant district attorney was sentenced Monday to over
five years in prison for taking bribes from drug defendants.

Ramon Villafranca, 59, was convicted of extortion in January. U.S. District
Judge John Rainey sentenced Villafranca to 63 months in jail and fined him
$10,000. Prosecutors had asked Rainey to sentence Villafranca, a former band
director and middle school principal, to more than that.

Villafranca was accused of working with former state District Judge Ruben
Garcia, 64, who pleaded guilty to extortion last year and cooperated with
prosecutors. Garcia was an attorney in private practice at the time of the
alleged conspiracy, which involved promises of dismissed charges or
probation for drug defendants who
paid bribes.