A former Weld County District Court judge was sentenced to a year and a day in prison Wednesday because he tipped off a friend that their mutual acquaintance was the target of a federal drug investigation in 2019.

Ryan Kamada, who has resigned his judgeship and has been disbarred, pleaded guilty to obstruction last year. His sentencing hearing lasted nearly four hours Wednesday.

Kamada was still working as a judge in 2019 when he was approached by law enforcement officers and asked to sign a search warrant in a drug investigation. Kamada recused himself from signing the warrant because he was acquainted with the suspected drug dealer.

But Kamada then secretly called his friend and warned him to stay away from the suspected drug dealer because of the investigation. He warned his friend that the drug dealer was being watched, even making up information about the investigation to try to get his friend’s full attention, according to court records.

Rather than staying away from the suspected drug dealer, Kamada’s friend instead tipped him to the investigation. Despite Kamada’s warning, both men were later arrested as part of the drug investigation.

Kamada had faced as much as three years and four months in prison on the obstruction charge, although the expected sentencing range, given his criminal history, was between 12 and 18 months.

Kamada was also criticized for his demeanor on the bench and was publicly censured by the Colorado Supreme Court in December, in part because he frequently texted his friends inappropriate comments about what was happening in his courtroom, even alerting one friend to a finalized divorce and telling the friend the woman would be “free game tomorrow night.”

Kamada will receive credit for time served, Judge William Martínez decided, and will be supervised for two years after his release from prison.