United States Attorney Johnny Sutton announced Friday afternoon that John Travis Ketner, an attorney and former Chief of Staff to El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos , pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to defraud El Paso County by fraudulently securing vendor contracts.
Ketner appeared before United States District Judge Frank Montalvo to plead guilty to the four counts against him - two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Ketner could face up to five years in federal prison for bribery conspiracy, and he could face up to 20 years for each of the other counts.
The U.S. Attorney's office said a sentencing date has been scheduled, but the exact date was not released.
Assistant U..S Attorney Debra Kanof will prosecute the case.
A Cleansing Effect
Ketner resigned as Cobos's chief of staff not long after the recent FBI raid. A few days later, Cobos said he was surprised and did not know of Ketner's resignation, even though a whole weekend had passed since Ketner's leaving.
A source close to county government said Cobos's surprise was actually genuine.
Rep. Steve Ortega stated that he believes Ketner's guilty plea means that he is cooperating with the FBI in its investigation of former employees of the National Center for Employment of the Disabled, or NCED.
"Now you'll start to see some of his (Ketner) associates go down as well," Ortega added.
Ortega also said that Ketner's guilty plea will improve the political community of El Paso. "It'll have a cleansing effect in the El Paso community," he said. "For many years you've had folks led by a special interest clique who have used government for personal enrichment."
Ortega further stated that this incident should serve as a warning to public servants that government should be strictly used to enhance the public interest.
County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, echoing Ortega's comments,also believes that Ketner pleading guilty will show politicians that "there are consequences for those who use their office for personal enrichment."
Escobar said the investigation and today's revelation were "distressing" because of the magnitude of the situation.
"On one hand it's distressing, but on the other hand it gives me a lot of faith in our criminal justice system," Escobar said. "It's important that we know our criminal justice officials are paying attention."
Bolstering the conception that Ketner may be aiding federal authorities in their investigations, Escobar stated that he spent "several hours behind closed doors" with authorities during the raid of County offices in May.
"He was a former assistant district attorney," Escobar stated, "so he knew he wasn't being detained and was free to leave at any time."
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Newspaper Tree will report more on this story as information becomes available.
