JUDGE TAKES $4,800 ON VIDEO: JURORS SEE PAYOFFS FROM SISTER OF INMATE

EL PASO -- Jurors on Thursday sat transfixed as they watched two
videotapes of state judge Manuel Barraza accepting almost $5,000 in
payoffs from the sister of a jail inmate facing drug charges.

The 2009 videos show Barraza, then a sitting judge, accepting the money
while in his office on the 10th floor of the County Courthouse. The first
payment was for $1,000 and the second for $3,800.

Prosecutors say these payments were illegal and prove that Barraza was a
dishonest judge.

In total, jurors saw or heard seven new tapes on Thursday as Barraza's
trial continued in U.S. District Court.

All of the tapes were accompanied by the testimony of Sarai Valencia, 24.
FBI agents equipped her with a portable hidden camera and a body wire that
captured her dealings with Barraza on audio and videotape.

Valencia, the only witness Thursday, testified for eight hours. She will
be back on the stand today.

Barraza's defense team had less than an hour to cross-examine her before
the trial was adjourned for the day.

But in that span, Mervyn Mosbacker, Barraza's lead attorney, got Valencia
to say that she received $2,000 for helping the FBI build its case against
Barraza. She also said the FBI promised not to charge her for any crime
she might have committed while attempting to bribe Barraza.

And more important, she said, the FBI promised to try to keep her sister,
Diana Rivas Valencia, from being deported to Mexico. Rivas Valencia is
facing state drug-possession charges.

She was arrested in September 2008 and charged with possessing two kilos
of cocaine. If convicted, Rivas Valencia would lose her legal residency.

During cross-examination, Sarai Valencia said Barraza never told her he
would get the charges against her sister dropped.

"He only said that he would help her," Valencia said.

Mosbacker wanted to attack Sarai Valencia's credibility by questioning her
about her conviction for prostitution. But U.S. District Court Judge Frank
Montalvo ruled that the defense could not bring up her criminal record.

Prosecutors said the focal point of the case was a crooked judge, not the
woman who helped expose him. The fact that Barraza took payoffs in a drug
case while he was presiding over a drug court constituted a crime,
prosecutors said.

All seven tapes played for the jury included conversations between
Valencia and Barraza. They talked about her sister's criminal case and
what Barraza was doing to help her.

Other parts of the tapes centered on his requests for money and sex with
women as a second form of payment.

During a Feb. 24, 2009, conversation, Valencia asked Barraza what he was
doing to help her sister. They had money ready for him and women lined up
to have sex with him, she said.

Barraza replied that he was still trying to move Rivas Valencia's case
onto his docket. Her case was assigned to a different state judge.

"We have not taken our finger off the situation," Barraza said on the
tape. "In fact, we have struggled a little more" to move the case into his
courtroom.

Barraza told Valencia that the female judge assigned to the case would not
transfer it to him. But Barraza said that he and a lawyer, David Biagas,
were not giving up.

"That's why I'm telling you that it would be a good thing to disqualify
the lady, the judge that's in right now," Barraza said. "Let's see if we
can disqualify her so that I can take over the case."

Biagas is a longtime El Paso attorney and was a friend of Barraza's.
Biagas turned against Barraza after the scandal broke, becoming a
government witness who is scheduled to testify against Barraza.