ICE agent sentenced to 44 months for seeking bribes
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press
July 12, 2007 - 4:41PM
EL PASO (AP) - An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent convicted of taking a $20,000 bribe was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison.

Santiago Efrain Valle, 44, was convicted in April of one count each of bribery and extortion under the color of law. He has denied offering to have an immigration charge dropped and the risk classification changed for a Mexican national jailed at the ICE detention center in El Paso in exchange for the bribe.

U.S. District Judge David Briones sentenced him to 44 months on the bribery charge and 36 months on the extortion count. The sentences will be served concurrently, and Valle will also serve three years of supervised release afterward. He could have been sentenced to up to 18 years.

Valle was arrested in 2006 after accepting the bribe from undercover federal agents. The agents learned about the bribe offer from a lawyer for the illegal immigrant who was arrested in Alamogordo, N.M., Francisco Javier Gutierrez.

Christopher Antcliff, Valle's lawyer, on Thursday asked Briones to sentence Valle to the least amount of prison time possible.

"My client has worked in that camp for 10 years and to this day ... we maintain his innocence," Antcliff said. "He's a good man, who if the jury's verdict is to have any credibility, made a mistake."

Briones said he heard all of the evidence, including testimony from Gutierrez, and agreed with the verdict.

"He's living in a fantasy world, sir," Briones said of Valle's claims of innocence.

Valle, speaking on his own behalf, told Briones he was proud of his ICE service.

"All I can say sir, is that that for 10 years I served ... with pride, honor and loyalty, sir," Valle said.

Valle remains on indefinite leave without pay, ICE officials in El Paso said Thursday.

Antcliff said Valle, who is required to report to prison Sept. 14, will appeal both the verdict and the sentence. Antcliff declined to comment after the brief hearing.

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