Prison time for former magistrate

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - A former state magistrate in Portsmouth has been sentenced to prison for accepting bribes from 2009 to 2012.

According to Deanna Warren with the federal courts, 52-year-old Deborah Clark was sentenced to 12 months in prision. Clark pled guilty to a bribery charge in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Clark was a sate magistrate from January 1993 until 2012. A statement of facts filed with the plea agreement says that from 2009 through February of this year, Clark accepted cash and gifts from a bondsman in exchange for referring potential clients to him.

She also accepted the bondsman's advice on the amount of bond to set in some case.