Former Commerce official gets 1 year in prison

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A former state Commerce Department official was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in prison on a bribery charge. <br><br>Phillip Charles Bread, 43, had previously admitted

Thursday, April 10th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A former state Commerce Department official was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in prison on a bribery charge.

Phillip Charles Bread, 43, had previously admitted accepting $6,250 in ``consulting fees'' for work he was already paid by the state to do, said Robert McCampbell, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Bread, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, was director of tribal assistance for the Commerce Department before resigning in May 2001. A federal grand jury indicted him in August on 11 counts, including bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud.

Bread accepted money for facilitating business transactions between Oklahoma Indian tribes and out-of-state corporations, McCampbell said. He knew that work was part of his job with the state, the prosecutor added.

``No public official at any level should take outside payments for the work he or she is paid to do by taxpayers,'' McCampbell said. ``Oklahomans demand and deserve better from their government.''