EAST CHICAGO | Stormwater department supervisor Rudy Rucoba has been sentenced to eight years on probation for acting as a drug courier on an ill-fated mission to deliver 20 pounds of marijuana to the Chicago area from Texas, and he remains on the job with the city of East Chicago.

"I have no comment," Rucoba said recently when he was reached by phone at work.

Rucoba, 31, pleaded guilty in late February in suburban Dallas to marijuana possession, said Hunt County District Attorney Nobie Walker. Texas counties use juries at sentencing, and jurors handed Rucoba a two-year jail sentence, but a judge commuted the sentence to eight years probation, Walker said.

Rucoba signed no plea agreement that might have required him to cooperate with investigators looking into other crimes, Walker said.

The sentencing hearing featured at least one East Chicago politician as a character witness for Rucoba: Councilman Lenny Franciski. Outside a City Council meeting this month, Franciski described Rucoba as a "childhood friend." Asked how the taxpayers should feel about a councilman testifying on behalf of city worker who tried to deliver drugs into the region, Franciski said he doesn't condone drug activity.

"People every day make mistakes," he said.

Franciski's trip to Texas was especially noteworthy, because he missed the City Council's first vote on Mayor George Pabey's proposed court settlement with controversial casino money beneficiary Second Century. In the absence of Franciski, who represents the 2nd District, council members deadlocked 4-4. With Franciski present March 3, the council took up the settlement again, but Councilman Jimmy Ventura switched his vote to "no," and the council denied approving the settlement 5-4. Franciski later voted against an ordinance transferring financial oversight powers from Pabey, who remains under federal indictment on charges he misappropriated tax money, to the council. That measure passed 5-4.

City spokesman Damian Rico was asked several times by a reporter to find out whether Rucoba will face any job-related consequences for the conviction, but he never offered that information. Rucoba's supervisor, Utilities Director Al Velez, did not return multiple calls for comment.

Rucoba now makes $60,200 yearly as the city's stormwater coordinator, according to payroll records filed with the state in January.

Rucoba was pulled over Feb. 6, 2009, on an interstate highway in the Dallas suburb of Royse City, according to police reports. The officer wrote that he pulled Rucoba over about 11:15 p.m. because Rucoba was driving a rented Mazda at least 15 mph below the speed limit when he changed lanes without signaling.

The officer wrote that Rucoba first said he had flown to Houston to cheat on his wife, changed his mind and rented a car for the 18-hour drive back to East Chicago. The officer found that story implausible because Rucoba's only luggage was a T-shirt and gym shorts, according to the report. Rucoba shook "nonstop" as he handed over his driver's license, the officer wrote.

A search of the trunk turned up 20.2 pounds of marijuana, and Rucoba told police he took a $3,000 payment from his "brother-in-law's brother" to pick up the marijuana in Houston and drive the drugs back to the Chicago area, according to the police report and Rucoba's signed confession. Just after Rucoba confessed and gave officers the name of the man who allegedly paid him to pick up the three "bricks" of marijuana, he asked to speak with a lawyer, and the statement was cut short, according to a signed confession obtained by The Times.

Rudy Rucoba's father, Ray Rucoba, is a veteran of city politics who has taken appointments from both of the last two mayors. Pabey's administration recently appointed Ray Rucoba to run the city's preparation for the 2010 census. That census coordination office is in City Hall.

THE CASE: East Chicago stormwater department supervisor Rudy Rucoba still is on the job despite pleading guilty last month to possessing 20 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop last year near Dallas. Rucoba, who admitted he had been hired to drive the drugs to the Chicago area, was sentenced to eight years probation.