Edwin Pagan III, a former Coral Gables police officer, was sentenced to 10 months on Thursday in the corruption case of two Drug Enforcement Administration agents convicted of a bribery scheme at a previous trial where Pagan testified in their defense.
Rather than face trial on his own, Pagan pleaded guilty in October to a minor felony of failing to report the bribery conspiracy to federal investigators when he learned the DEA agents — one active, the other retired — were indicted in 2022. Instead, he testified for them at their trial in New York City the following year and was accused of hiding their crime.
Under his plea agreement, Pagan faced a potential prison term of 10 to 16 months according to federal sentencing guidelines. However, the outcome in Manhattan federal court turned out far better than the risk of going to trial himself on the more serious charges of conspiracy, bribery, fraud and perjury, which carried harsher punishment…