FORMER FEDERAL PRETRIAL SERVICES OFFICER SENTENCED
FOR MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS TO FEDERAL OFFICERS
[BROWNSVILLE, TX] – Long-time McAllen Federal Pretrial Services Officer Juan M. Cantu, 51, of Edinburg, was sentenced to prison today for lying about the whereabouts of a drug trafficking fugitive to deputy U. S. Marshals, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.
Cantu plead to making a false statement to a federal agent regarding the location of a fugitive on August 29, 2006. Today, United States District Judge Hilda Tagle sentenced Cantu to serve 18 months in federal prison, without parole, fined him $6000 and ordered he be supervised for a period of three years following his release from prison. Today’s sentencing comes after a full day of testimony from witnesses for the government, and the defense and argument held on January 31, 2007 during which Cantu denied having obstructed justice by arranging to change the receipt for a pair of $400 boots bought and given to him by the fugitive to reflect his own name as purchaser.
At today’s sentencing hearing, after considering the testimony of the fugitive who had bought the boots for Cantu and the boot store clerk given last week, United States District Judge Hilda Tagle found Cantu had, in fact, obstructed justice as the government had contended.
Cantu’s conviction on August 29, 2006 following his guilty plea and today’s sentence are the result of an investigation which proved that on April 21, 2005, Cantu, then a U. S. Pretrial Services officer assigned to the McAllen office, lied to a deputy United States Marshal and FBI special agent when he claimed to have no information to assist agents to locate a fugitive wanted by the United States Marshals Service. In fact, on at least three prior occasions before this meeting with investigating agents, Cantu was seen meeting with the fugitive in the McAllen area. Moreover, Cantu had extensive telephone contact with this fugitive, including a call after his meeting with agents on April 21, 2005.
The court ordered Cantu would be permitted to remain free on bond pending an order to surrender to a U. S. Bureau of Prisons facility as yet undetermined.
The investigation leading to the arrest and subsequent conviction of Cantu was conducted by agents of the McAllen Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Division, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Marshal’s Service and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Larry Eastepp and Jim McAlister of the Public Corruption Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. |
