Wednesday, July 16, 2008- The first 9 people to plead guilty in the on-going public corruption case will likely face light sentences.  That, according to retired FBI Special Agent In Charge of El Paso, Richard Schwein.

The latest person to plead guilty is Fernando Parra who confessed in Federal Court, Tuesday, to helping bribe members of El Paso County Commissioner's Court.

"They seize computers and documents and those have to be meticulously gone through line by line.  Of course they've managed to get 9 guilty pleas so they are working very rapidly because these are slow moving cases."  says Schwein.

Newschannel 9 asked Schwein about the sentences for the first 9 defendants.  Some have pleaded guilty to bribing former and current commissioners and others have pleaded guilty to receiving those bribes.  In many of these cases, the people who pleaded guilty could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

We wanted to know why is it that there have been no sentences handed out.  The answer, according to Schwein is simple. If you admit to a crime and then roll over and testify against someone else,  prosecutors aren't going to let you be sentenced until they can verify how good or how bad the information you provided is. If its good information, you could get yourself a sweetheart deal.  If the information is bad, however, you could serve the full 20 years.

"Indictments will no doubt follow soon on other people yet unknown and some of the ones who have plead guilty or all of them will testify for the United States government against the indicted people."  says Schwein.