A pair of law enforcement officers and the owner of a towing company were each sentenced on Tuesday after a jury convicted them for their involvement in a bribery scheme. 

A former lieutenant and a former sergeant with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office, along with the business owner, were convicted in June 2024, were convicted in June 2024 of bribery and conspiracy. The defendants filed motions for a new trial, but the motion was denied, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

53-year-old Samuel Flores, the former lieutenant, was sentenced to two years of formal probation and 270 days in county jail. 59-year-old Robert Christolon, the former sergeant, received a sentence of two years of formal probation and 180 days to be served in the sheriff's work release program.

Cody Close, 33 and the former owner of DJ's Towing in Temecula, was sentenced to two years of formal probation and 120 days in county jail. Flores and Close will begin serving their sentences in jail immediately.

Prosecutors say that when Flores and Christolon were in charge of the Traffic Bureau at the Sheriff's Southwest Station in Temecula in 2018 and 2019, they directed business to DJ's Towing in exchange for bribes.

As a result of the scheme, Flores and Christolon received a stay at an oceanfront beach house, tickets to the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival, a 1979 Corvette, a 1968 International pickup truck and a Honda Civic.

In text messages, Flores and Close discussed Close's business with the sheriff's office. One message from Flores to Close said, "make that money, homie," according to prosecutors.

Another deputy, Kevin Carpenter, was sentenced last October for his role in the scheme to two years of probation and 180 days to be served in the work release program.