CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Ex-Official Admits Guilt in Drug Case

Former South Lake Tahoe Mayor Terry Trupp pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and using a telephone to make a drug deal stemming from an FBI undercover probe of cocaine trafficking. Trupp, 47, under an agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty and agreed to a nine-year prison term. Trupp, one of 18 people arrested in the FBI’s “Deep Snow” probe in Lake Tahoe and Southern California, remained in custody. His attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Robert Holley, asked that Trupp be released on bail pending the sentencing, but prosecutors opposed the move. U.S. District Judge Milton Schwartz said he would set a hearing on the bail motion. Holley indicated that Trupp felt he could be found innocent if the case went to trial, but did not want to run the risk of spending 20 years or more in prison. “Mr. Trupp wants to get this behind him,” Holley said. “He wants to get his life going again.”