BROWNSVILLE, Texas, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Former Texas District Judge Abel Limas was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison on a racketeering charge, court records state.
Limas, 59, pleaded guilty in 2011 to converting his courtroom into a criminal enterprise, collecting bribes and kickbacks in a Cameron County, Texas, "cash for court favors" scandal totaling $257,000, KGBT-TV, Harlingen, Texas, reported.
Limas later testified against attorneys and a district attorney in separate trials relating to the scandal, KGBT-TV said.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hansen sentenced Limas to six years imprisonment followed by three years of unsupervised release, and ordered restitution to corporations and attorneys totaling over $6 million, the Brownsville, Texas, Herald reported.
"His court was a sham," said former Cameron County District Attorney Yolanda de Leon.
She said Limas "had been denying victims justice" and made many decision in closed chambers.
