"[S]ee what you can do without drawing attention. This involves family so I don't want anyone to know."

That's what a North Carolina local judge told an FBI official in seeking the agent's cooperation to get the text messages of two different phone numbers, according to the federal indictment (PDF) lodged against Wayne County Superior Court Judge Arnold Ogden Jones.

How much is that illegal, warrantless surveillance worth?

According to the indictment:

JONES asked the FBI Officer what he thought was a fair number, stating, "You tell me, I'm serious." JONES confirmed that he did not want the FBI Officer to only obtain and deliver the text messages as a favor by stating, "No, no, no, You've had to take time, and I'm glad to do something. Do you follow me?" JONES and the FBI Officer initially agreed upon "a couple of cases of beer" as the amount of the payment from JONES to the FBI Officer.

On November 3, days after that October 27 conversation, the judge told the FBI officer, whom the judge knew worked for the FBI, that he had his "paycheck" in the back seat of his car. Eventually, they agreed on $100 in cash as payment instead, according to the indictment. "In return, the FBI Officer delivered to [Jones] an FBI disk that was represented to contain the text messages requested by [Jones]," according to the indictment.

The judge was arrested (PDF) Wednesday and released without bond (PDF). A Wayne County Superior Court clerk told Ars that the judge, who did not immediately respond for comment, is on administrative leave pending the indictment's outcome.

Jones is accused of three felonies, carrying a maximum 37 years in prison if convicted. Two of the charges concern allegations of bribing a public official. The third is "attempted corrupt influence of official proceeding."

The indictment does not name the FBI official or the family members in question.

Local media described Jones as a "registered Democrat who was elected to an eight-year term on the Superior Court bench in 2008, [and] is the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission chairman. The commission was created by the General Assembly in 2006 and began operating in 2007. Since then, the commission has reviewed hundreds of innocence claims and conducted multiple hearings, some of which have resulted in the freeing of inmates wrongfully convicted of murder."