Anthony Cobos still in El Paso; won’t be turned over to Federal Bureau of Prisons today
The U.S. Marshals Service, which has Anthony Cobos in its custody, won’t be turning Cobos over to the Federal Bureau of Prisons today.
U.S. Marshals spokesman Scott Williams told ABC-7 today that Cobos is still in El Paso County Jail and that he won’t be taken to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Colorado until they have more prisoners to put on the plane because it’s too expensive to fly just one prisoner up to Colorado.
Cobos, 46, was supposed to turn himself into the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Colorado today to start his four-year prison sentence for public corruption.
He was arrested in El Paso in late January on two felony fraud charges out of New Mexico. He waived extradition to Dona Ana County to face the charges.
The Marshals Service say the former El Paso County judge’s arrest in New Mexico is a violation of the release he was granted before the start of his four-year corruption sentence. Read more about his federal conviction at http:// bit.ly/1gms60g
Cobos is facing fraud charges after he sold a mobile home and land to a couple in Chaparral, New mexico
Cobos made his first appearance in a New Mexico courtroom on last week by teleconference on a charge of felony fraud, a second degree felony punishable by nine years in prison.
The Alleged Fraud Incident In Chaparral, New Mexico
Cobos is charged with a two counts of 2nd degree felony fraud from an alleged incident in Chaparral, New Mexico. The new charges are not connected to the federal charges Cobos pleaded guilty to last year.
“The two 2nd degree counts of fraud involve a home that Mr. Cobos did not own but allegedly had sold on a real estate contract,” Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Spokeswoman Kelly Jameson told ABC-7 on Jan. 31, the day he was arrested and charged in the New Mexico case.
The Doa Ana County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Cobos after a Chaparral couple was notified that the mortgage holder was foreclosing on property they lived on because payments had not been made since Nov. 2012. The couple claimed to have bought this land and mobile home they lived in in Chaparral from Cobos.
The couple had also reportedly paid Cobos seven additional payments after the loan went into default.
Doa Ana County Sheriff’s investigators have obtained receipts from the couple that detail each payment made to Cobos.
Dona Ana County Sheriff’s officials say an investigation revealed that Cobos was never the legal lien holder of the property and that the property reportedly belonged to his dead stepmother.
“The couple allegedly entered into a residential lease purchase agreement with Cobos in August 2009, making monthly payments to Cobos in the amount of $506. The terms of the contract also included annual lump sum payments to Cobos. Altogether, the monthly installments and lump sum payments totaled $43,290.26,” according to a news release by the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office.
