ST. LOUIS—The former head of Missouri’s public defender’s office in St. Louis pleaded guilty July 30 to federal charges of arranging a sham marriage to keep his boyfriend in the U.S.

Eric Affholter admitted in the plea that he and his boyfriend, Pedro Cerna-Rojas, recruited Affholter’s employee, Collette Lewis, to marry Cerna-Rojas in the late summer or early fall of 2004.

Lewis agreed to the arrangement, according to the plea agreement. She traveled with Affholter, Cerna-Rojas and her boyfriend, Timothy J. O’Leary to Las Vegas and married Cerna-Rojas on Dec. 20.

O’Leary was an assistant circuit attorney in St. Louis but has since resigned, as did Lewis and Affholter after news of a criminal investigation became public in May.

Immigration law allows a foreign national who marries a U.S. citizen to obtain permanent residence. But the law does not recognize gay marriage, nor does it allow for sponsorship of a same-sex partner.