CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx. — A former Corpus Christi Independent School District board trustee was sentenced to 5 years of probation during a hearing in federal court on Wednesday.
As KRIS 6 News first reported in November, former trustee John Longoria pleaded guilty to filing a false return.
That charge of filing a false return stemmed from a failure to report work done on his home, at no charge, beginning in 2014.
In November, federal prosecutors said this undeclared income totaled over $535,000 from 2014 to 2016. Judge Morales said the work on his home was more than $700,000.
Among the conditions imposed by the court, Longoria must pay a fine of $40,000, an additional $187,315 in restitution to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, submit to location monitoring and pay the cost of that program, and complete 75 hours of community service within the first year.
Simon Purnell, Longoria's attorney, said he has paid the nearly $190,000 in restitution. A prosecutor for the United States said proof of payment has been provided, but it has yet to be credited by the IRS.
During sentencing, United States District Judge David Morales acknowledged a multitude of letters in support of Longoria had been received, but the fact that Longoria was a public official added to the gravity of the situation.
Morales also added that Longoria had pleaded guilty to tax evasion, and not public corruption, therefore he was limited in what he could consider for sentencing.
During the hearing, Longoria offered his "deepest" apologies to his family and the U.S. Government and said that he knew what he did and takes "personal responsibility" adding he had learned some "hard lessons and experienced personal growth."
While the U.S. prosecutor requested a prison sentence of eight months, Purnell argued for probation.
He said that Longoria's punishment began three years ago when his home was raided by the FBI, adding that the raid and subsequent media scrutiny had impacted his career and family.
According to the statute, Longoria could have been sentenced to up to 30 months in federal prison.
Purnell told 6 Investigates that Longoria is not assisting with any other any federal investigations. When asked about the relation to the FBI raid on Longoria's residence and the raid on Fulton Construction, Purnell told KRIS 6 News "I haven't had the benefit of seeing the warrant in this case because it never got there, but as I understand it there were people that were saying that somehow John Longoria and Fulton Construction were intertwined and that there were benefits Fulton was getting because of John Longoria and vice versa. That's not what played out in this case, it eventually became a tax case."
