SHERMAN, TEXAS -- U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas Malcolm Bales says today's guilty plea is a victory for the public trust.

"I'm going to start with a quote from the Book of Proverbs. 'The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes a crooked path will be found out,' and today in a federal court room in Sherman, Texas, the former mayor of Melissa, Texas, David Dorman, has discovered that scripture," Bales said.

David Dorman, the man who led Melissa for a decade, pleaded guilty to mail fraud.

"More specifically, Mr. Dorman has admitted that he used his office as mayor to orchestrate a real estate transaction that not only benefited a crooked real estate developer, but himself as well to the tune of $30,000 in illicit payments," Bales said.

Prosecutors say in 2006, local real estate broker John Christie was interested in 33 acres of land off Highway 5 and 121.

Christie paid Dorman $30,000 to annex that land from McKinney to Melissa. The deal was completed by September 2007.

"This investigation was made possible because someone came forward. They took action to report troublesome activity and were able to use this information to open and conduct an investigation," FBI Special Agent for the Dallas Division Diego Rodriguez said.

Ashley Neal says he's one of the Melissa residents who contributed to the FBI's investigation.

He says when Dorman was mayor, Dorman refused to give Neal's stone and tile business a certificate of occupancy.

Neal says that made him lose his one point five million dollar property and his entire business.

"So I then began fighting him, obviously going to city hall meetings and exposing what he was doing. He obviously was involved with people, like John Christie, that did take in bribes and we refused to give him a bribe, but that wasn't part of our business plan," Neal said.

Neal says he wasn't surprised by Dorman's extortion indictment.

"But I was impressed the FBI did their job and actually got a bad guy this time," Neal said.

Dorman will be sentenced at a later date.

Bales says they'll continue investigating Dorman to see if there were more illegal transactions.

"Public service cannot be permitted to abuse their authority, or their positions, for their own personal benefit. That's the bottom line message of the Dorman case. You can be sure, as well, that Dorman will forfeit the $30,000 in ill-gotten gain to the U.S. Treasury," Bales said.