A Navajo Nation judge convicted of abusing his office to help relatives in a burglary case won’t serve a single day in jail. Instead, he'll lose his job and have to pay a $25 fine, if the sanction withstands an appeal.

Though the fine may appear light to outsiders, the prosecution is singing the trial judge’s praises while the defense condemns the punishment as a gross injustice.

“I just wanted this guy removed from office, never to be a judge again,” says Richard Wade, hired by the Navajo Nation to act as prosecutor. “If this conviction sticks, I accomplished what I wanted, to remove a bad actor, a corrupt public official from office.”

District Judge Roy Tso Jr. was found guilty by fellow District Judge Genevieve Woody in December. Woody initially handed down just the fine in late February, but in a written sentencing order last week also barred Tso from continuing to work as a judge.

Wade sought the maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $2,500 fine, but says the outcome is “in line with Navajo tradition, which is not a punishment oriented judicial system like the Anglo system -- they recognize that when someone screws up they need to be removed, not necessarily stuck in a jail.”

The Navajo Nation governs the country's largest American Indian reservation by area and has its own government and court system on land in three states. If Tso was a judge working outside the Navajo court system, Wade says, “he would have spent a good long while in a federal prison.”

The case against Tso began with an alleged June 2013 burglary committed by his sister, a niece and a third person. The trio was caught “red-handed” with loot from a storage unit, Wade says.

Tso left the scene as police arrived, according to court testimony from a policewoman, who said he then called the jail and demanded the three be released. Shortly before midnight, Tso allegedly called local prosecutor Ruby Benally with a similar request, followed by another call and a text message. Weeks later, Benally testified she met with a mutual friend who offer a $750 bribe to drop the case.

Wade says the burglary charges “mysteriously” didn’t go to trial. The niece since committed suicide and the woman who allegedly offered the bribe could not be located ahead of Tso's trial, Wade says, though she was interviewed by the FBI and denied wrongdoing.

Woody wrote in her ruling, however, that Benally’s testimony was “consistent throughout all phases of trial in this matter and was not challenged or disproved by Defendant for its truth or accuracy.”

The $25 fine may seem a slap on the wrist for corruption, but Wade says that by imposing such a low penalty, Woody may have intended to make an appeal more difficult.

That’s because a Navajo Nation court system rule requires fines be $26 or more for a defendant to be eligible to appeal. It’s a rule that both the defense and prosecution say may be overridden by the 1978 decision in the tribal court case Navajo Nation v. Browneyes.

“My belief is she probably looked at that rule,” says defense attorney Judy Apachee. “[The sentencing order] is structured and phrased to make it hard on my client.”

Apachee alleges the judge treated her client unfairly by denying a large number of motions, and by identifying people as victims when the term wasn’t used at trial. She scoffs at the judge’s conviction order, saying she would replace the words “uncontroverted” with “unsubstantiated.”

The defense lawyer says she’s not sure why Benally alleged she was contacted by Tso and offered a bribe on his behalf. But she says there was no proof of any phone call or text message, something a bribe-offered prosecutor surely would document.

Apachee chose to forgo a jury trial because of a frustrating experience crafting jury instructions with Wade in a previous corruption case against Tso relating to his time as a Navajo Nation prosecutor. That case was dismissed, but Wade says it could be refiled.

Tso hopes to return to work as a judge if he wins his appeal. He’s been on unpaid leave and ordered not to work by the chief justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, Apachee says, and has had to rely on family support during the case against him.

“We talk about how he’s going to look at criminal complaints once he’s back on the bench,” she says. “This has been an eye opening case for him. He was a prosecutor who became a judge, he had a different view of criminal cases. He sees what he needs to do when he goes back on the bench.”

Navajo Nation district judges are appointed by the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. They first must survive a probationary period, before public hearings are held to consider making the appointment permanent. Tso remains in a probationary period.