A federal appeals was court Monday reduced former South Gate Treasurer Albert Robles' corruption convictions, over 6 years after he was first found guilty.

Robles had served the predominantly Latino community of 100,000 in southwest Los Angeles County for nearly a dozen years before being sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2006 for illegal conduct involving city contracts.

The three judge panel threw out Robles' conviction of public corruption and money laundering, but upheld five other counts of bribery. The ruling could lead to a reduction of his sentence, or even a retrial.

Robles had been at the center of controversy for a large part of his time as treasurer for South Gate. Some had dubbed him the "King of South Gate," and one editor of the L.A Times who had voiced his opposition to Robles was mysteriously shot in the head in 1999 by an unknown assailant. Robles has maintained his innocence all along.

"Call me a pit bull, say that I lack tact, say that I'm crude," Robles said in a 2002 interview. "I'm not that suave, go-along, get-along kind of guy. I call a spade a spade. I decided I wasn't going to be a whore of the big guys, the big sharks. The only reason I have these big political enemies is because I do tell them no."

Nepotism appears to have been the main source for much of Robles' immoral deeds. He had public money routed to one brother, a rehabilitation program that another brother ran, and to his former girlfriend's mother. His own mother's divorce lawyer was also given the city attorney position after Robles fired the incumbent, even though the divorce lawyer had no experience in government law.

"There are different levels of hoodwinking, but I didn't think hoodwinking was a crime," Robles said. "During that period I decided not to be a very good man every day. But I did not decide to be a criminal."

The judge, Steven Wilson, that presided over his original case did not see it the same way. He had claimed that Robles was a "puppet master" who had grossly overstepped his boundaries. When Robles' attorney said that what he had done was standard procedure for California politics, Wilson replied with: "what you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard."

Robles' attorney, Thomas Kiley, said that he was hopeful that the new verdict on some of his client's charges would mean that Robles could leave prison now. The case will now go over to a federal district judge, who will review whether or not that is a possibility.