A former senior Los Angeles Attorney General’s Office was sentenced Tuesday to nine months of house arrest and three years’ probation for his role in a corruption scheme linked to billing problems at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Thomas Peters, of Pacific Palisades, helped and supported an extortion scheme, he admitted in court.

Peters, who oversaw the city’s civil litigation department under former City Atty. Mike Feuer, admitted to threatening to fire one of the city’s out-of-town attorneys unless that attorney paid an individual who threatened to reveal damaging information about city attorneys who handled the DWP’s 2013 billing mess.

The sentence was much less than the 18 months in prison that federal prosecutors had demanded.

In sentencing Peters, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. the case “an incredibly vile case.” But he also questioned the extent of the “damage” Peters had caused and whether a prison sentence would deter lawyers from committing similar misdeeds.

Peters is the third former city employee to be convicted in the massive case. David Wright, the former DWP chief executive, was sentenced to six years in prison for bribery in April 2022. In June, David Alexander

a former officer responsible for cybersecurity at the DWP the former chief of cybersecurity at the DWP ,

was sentenced to four years in prison for lying to federal authorities.

Peters joined Feuers’ office in 2014 and handled most of the claims or lawsuits filed against or brought by the city. He resigned in 2019 after The Times questioned outside fees he collected.

Peters has cooperated with federal authorities in the criminal investigation. He also helped the State Bar of California with the related investigation, attorneys said Tuesday.