The United States Attorney's Office

Southern District of Texas

News Release

August 8, 2008

(McALLEN, Texas) - Former United States Probation Officer (USPO) Juan D. Muniz, 28, of McAllen, Texas, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $100 special assessment and a $6,000 fine, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today. Muniz was sentenced Aug. 7, 2008.

Muniz pleaded guilty, in April, to accepting a bribe in exchange for providing sensitive and protected information and documents. At that time, Muniz admitted to having provided a Pre-Sentence Investigation Report (PSR) containing law enforcement sensitive information obtained as a result of his official capacity as a USPO to a government cooperating witness (CW) in exchange for demanding and agreeing to accept $5,000 in U.S. currency in March 2008. Muniz also admitted at that time that he first provided sensitive work related information to the government's CW when Muniz was employed as a state probation officer. He also admitted that between Oct. 30, 2007, and March 20, 2008, he and the CW had numerous conversations and several meetings, the vast majority of which were audio and/or video recorded, where law enforcement sensitive information and documents were provided by Muniz to the CW in exchange for the CW providing U.S. currency to Muniz.

At his sentencing hearing, Muniz expressed remorse for his actions, but could provide no explanation to the court as to why he committed the crime. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Wright and Pat Profit and investigated by agents with the McAllen Office of the FBI.