Amaya sentenced to two years probation in public corruption case
Feb. 25, 2021
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Johnny Amaya, former Webb County water utilities director, sits in court Wednesday afternoon during the first day of his trial at the 49th District Court.Victor Strife, Photographer
Former Councilman and Laredo ISD Trustee Johnny Amaya was sentenced to two years probation on Thursday due to his involvement in a bribery scheme where he facilitated payments to local elected officials in exchange for their support of Dannenbaum Engineering contracts.
Federal District Judge Sim Lake, in a hearing held over Zoom, noted that 73-year-old Amaya is in poor health. Amaya told the judge he has had cancer and a five-pound tumor was removed from his stomach. He also has diabetes, high cholesterol and recently recovered from COVID-19.
Amaya sentenced to two years probation in public corruption case lmtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A federal spat over First Amendment protections had delayed legal proceedings until recently. Charges against Mr. Justice are still pending.
According to the plea deal, Richards admitted to working on videos created between February 2010 and August 2012 with titles such as “puppy1,” “whitechick1” and “blackluvsample.” One of the clips, “puppy2,” was described by prosecutors as showing the woman striking a defenseless pitbull numerous times with a meat cleaver while the dog’s mouth was closed shut with duct tape.
“In the video, Richards chops off one of the puppy’s paws, then hacks at his head and neck. Richards is later seen severing the dog’s head and urinating on its body. In another video, described in court today, Richards steps on a cat’s eye with heel of her shoe,” the court filing reads in part.
2020: Year in Review - Part 1: Border wall, elections, crime among year s top stories
Dec. 30, 2020
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Construction work on a new section of the border wall in Donna, Texas on Dec. 12, 2019. While COVID-19 has dominated the headlines in 2020, the year has still featured plenty of major news. And LMT’s four-part year in review series will take a look at both, beginning with the two-part top non-COVID headlines and culminating with a two-day look at the top COVID stories of 2020.Ilana Panich-Linsman /NYT
Editor’s note: 2020 has been filled to the brim with notable news, and it’s not just all related to the coronavirus pandemic. LMT will be taking a look at the top stories of the year both related to COVID-19 and not at all in a four-part series. We’ll start with Part 1 of 4, first discussing the top non-COVID stories of the year in its own two-part series.