Cobos to plead ‘no contest’ to fraud charges in Las Cruces

Former El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos is expected to plead “no contest” to fraud charges stemming from the sale of property to a Chaparral couple.

According to a complaint affidavit, Cobos sold the couple property that belonged to his deceased stepmother.

The couple made monthly mortgage payments totaling $20,000 or more to Cobos, who allegedly stopped paying his mortgage on the property. It wasn’t until the couple got a foreclosure notice on the home that they suspected they were possible victims of fraud.

Cobos, who is already serving a four-year federal prison sentence after admitting he accepted a bribe when he was county judge, originally pleaded not guilty to these new fraud charges.

According to a spokesperson with Judge Marci Beyer’s office, Cobos will plead no contest to a second-degree felony count of fraud over $20,000 with a possible maximum sentence of nine years in state prison.

Cobos was in district court this morning for a pretrial status conference. A no contest plea is legally the same as a guilty plea, only it can’t be used as evidence against him in a civil trial.