HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man has been sentenced to six months in prison for trying to extort $12,000 from a police investigator.

Media outlets report 29-year-old James Lynwood Tuckson Jr. of Staunton was sentenced Tuesday in Rockingham County Circuit Court. A judge accepted a plea agreement in which Tuckson was sentenced to five years in prison, with all but six months suspended.

Prosecutors say Tuckson wrote to Harrisonburg police investigator Chris O’Neill in March, demanding that he would file a complaint if O’Neill didn’t return $12,000 that Tuckson claims was seized during a search of his home. State police determined no money had been taken.

Tuckson is currently serving a six-month sentence at the Middle River Regional Jail for a previous conviction of stalking another Harrisonburg officer.

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