Rapid City real estate agent Doug Andrews has pleaded guilty to bribing a South Dakota Department of Transportation official.

Andrews, 65, was accused of paying kickbacks to a state employee to ensure the DOT bought land from his clients.

He entered a plea Thursday in Kadoka before 6th Judicial Circuit Court Judge John Brown. He faces up to 10 years in prison on each of three counts when he is sentenced Jan. 22 in Pierre. He also agreed to pay $125,000 in restitution.

Andrews was first charged in 2007, along with former Transportation official Clayton Sonnenschein. The state dropped the charges against Andrews, saying it wanted to try Sonnenschein first and have him testify later against Andrews. Sonnenschein eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of accepting bribes, was sentenced to 60 days in jail and five years of probation. He agreed to testify against Andrews.

Prosecutors said Sonnenschein accepted bribes from Andrews as part of his role in buying right-of-way land for construction along Interstate 90 near Rapid City. Sonnenschein received part of Andrews' commission -- about $47,000 -- in return for buying land from Andrews' clients in the Rapid City area, according to court documents. Sonnenschein was required to give the money to the court.

After Sonnenschein pleaded guilty in the case, in April 2008 a grand jury indicted Andrews on six counts of bribing a public officer and one count of grand theft. Those charges were identical to ones included in the original indictment that had been dismissed the previous year.

Andrews then asked that the charges be dismissed because the state violated a law that requires someone accused of a crime to be brought to trial within 180 days of the person's first appearance in court. Extra time beyond that 180 days is allowed for a variety of reasons, including delays requested by the defense or other unavoidable delays.

Circuit Judge John Brown of Pierre dismissed the charges after ruling the 180-day rule had been violated.

During an appeal, the state Supreme Court noted that previous rulings have held that the 180-day period starts to run anew after a second indictment if the original indictment was dismissed by a competent judicial officer and the record does not show prosecutors were trying to get around the 180-day requirement.

The prosecutor who dismissed the original charges against Andrews was not a judicial officer, but the second indictment against Andrews must be reinstated, because there is no evidence that the state was trying to circumvent the 180-day rule when it dismissed the initial charges, the high court said.