A probation officer arrested nearly a year after five other law enforcement officers were charged in a large federal investigation into drugs and corruption in eastern Arkansas has pleaded guilty.
Roxanne Davis, 38, entered the plea Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes.
Davis was arrested last September as part of the Operation Delta Blues investigation on accusations of accepting bribes to ignore drug trafficking perpetrated by men she was in charge of supervising.
In exchange for the guilty plea to one count of extortion, a second was dismissed.
Davis, who faces up to 20 years in prison, was allowed to remain free pending sentencing. No date has been set.
Holmes nearly didn't accept the guilty plea when Davis admitted taking money and gifts from a first-degree murder parolee she was supervising, but said it wasn't in exchange for ignoring violations of his parole conditions.
"Accepting money, yes, for gifts," Davis said at one point. "But it wasn't for not doing something or not doing a part of my job. It wasn't to pay me off for something."
Holmes warned that he was close to not accepting the plea because Davis was not admitting guilt to the charges against her.
She then changed her story and acknowledged she accepted money for not enforcing conditions.
"You're telling me that under oath?" Holmes asked.
"Yes, sir," Davis replied.
Four of the other five law enforcement officers also reached plea deals and were sentenced to prison. A fifth, Marlene Kalb, was found guilty at trial and recently was sentenced earlier this month to 30 months in prison.
In all, more than 70 defendants were indicted in the Delta Blues probe, which focused of drug trafficking in Phillips County and extending into other parts of Arkansas and surrounding states.