
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Texas, 64-year-old Danny Burnett was sentenced Tuesday to just over a year in prison after being convicted last September on charges that he leaked word of wiretaps that were part of a 2011 investigation into a Columbus gun smuggling ring and gave false information to federal investigators.
Burnett was accused of tipping off then-Columbus Police Chief Angelo Vega, whom he had known for decades.
Burnett, who retired as superintendent of the Los Lunas School District in 2003, and Vega reportedly were friends from their days in Lincoln County in the 1990s, where Vega was a deputy sheriff and Burnett, an educator.
Burnett also is the husband of Paula Burnett, who formerly headed the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s office for New Mexico, and who denied knowing about the wiretaps or telling her husband about the investigation.