By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and two others convicted of bribery and extortion are set to be sentenced as part of a City Hall corruption investigation.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn is set Friday to preside over the sentencing of Hill; his wife, Sheila Farrington Hill; and D'Angelo Lee, his appointee to the Dallas Plan Commission.
The three were convicted last year.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Don Hill and Lee face a maximum of 95 years in prison for coordinating a scheme to shake down developers for hundreds of thousands of dollars in return for votes on their low-income housing projects in southern Dallas.
Farrington could get up to 65 years for helping launder hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme.
Feds Arrest 284 Criminal Illegal Immigrants
Federal, local and state authorities arrested 284 immigrants with criminal records during a three-day enforcement surge across Texas.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Friday that it's the biggest operation targeting illegal criminal immigrants that they've ever conducted in the state.
ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton says Texas is safer as a result; 159 of the 284 arrested had previous convictions for violent crimes.
Arrests in the Dallas-Fort Worth area netted 119 criminal immigrants, there were 73 in San Antonio, 59 in Houston and 33 in El Paso.
Morton says those arrested came from numerous nations, including Korea, India, and Central and South America. Thirty-five immigrants were previously deported and re-entered illegally, he said.
Dallas man appointed to arts panel arrested at SMU
A Dallas man appointed to head a Texas arts commission was arrested on trespassing charges after being warned to stay off Southern Methodist University's campus due to student complaints.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Lee William "Bill" McNutt III was arrested by campus police Feb. 15. Gary Gibbs, executive director of the Texas Commission on the Arts, told The Associated Press on Friday that McNutt resigned as commission chairman Thursday.
McNutt was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in December.
The newspaper says SMU warned McNutt in 2008 not to come on campus. University officials said there were student complaints against McNutt alleging behavior violating university policy, like offering alcohol to minors.
McNutt did not immediately return a message.