By Jane Pratt
Abilene Reporter-News correspondent
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

STEPHENVILLE -- A man was sentenced to a 10 years probation and a $10,000 fine Wednesday after a jury convicted him of bribery in the 266th Judicial District Court.

A jury of nine men and three women found Peter Hellmuth Eggert, 63, guilty of bribery after deliberating for about three and a half hours Tuesday. The jury sentenced him to 10 years in the institutional division of the Criminal Justice Department, but it was suspended to a 10-year probation Wednesday after the jury deliberated about an hour.

Witnesses for the state said Eggert had offered a bribe to Lee Roy Gaitan, a Tarleton State University police officer, in April 2004 to obtain signatures on affidavits in an attempt to influence the Court of Appeals to overturn the conviction of Marcos Gallardo, who pleaded guilty of sexual assault in April 2002.

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