A federal judge Thursday sentenced a Colorado Springs contractor to two years probation and fined him $10,000 for his guilty plea to giving an illegal gratuity to a former Fort Carson construction chief.

U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger also ordered Wendel P. Torres to perform 100 hours of community service and to give public talks on civic responsibility and the need for contractors to adhere to ethical obligations when dealing with government contracts.

The ethics talks were Torres’ idea, said his lawyer Richard Tegtmeier.

“Wendel has been speaking to contractors and to federal officials,” Tegtmeier said after the sentencing, noting that Torres has given two such talks. “He actually began this on his own and the court picked up on it and made it a requirement that he continue.”

Torres pleaded guilty in December. He admitted to providing about $3,300 in free building materials to William T. Armstrong of Pueblo from April to November 2007.

At the time, Armstrong was chief of the Fort Carson construction division. Torres’ company did a substantial amount of business with Fort Carson. Armstrong pleaded guilty to failing to report the gift and cooperated with investigators.

Under a plea agreement, Torres could have faced 10 months in prison. However, prosecutors agreed to a lesser sentence because Torres has cooperated with investigators in an on-going corruption probe.

According to court documents, Torres was required to answer questions about free work his firm did repairing the Colorado Springs home of the adult daughter of an another unnamed government official in Fort Bliss Tex.

Torres had been active in civic and philanthropic activity. He had been chairman of the board of Goodwill Industries of Colorado Springs and he served on the boards of Rocky Mountain PBS and the Children’s Literacy Center.

Tegtmeier said Torres’ friends and family packed the courtroom in Denver during the sentencing hearing. He said Torres’ friends wrote more than 40 letters to the judge on his behalf.

For more court coverage, visit “The Gazette” blog at gazettedev.gazette.com.