Neil Volz, the former chief of staff to ex-Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), walked out of court Wednesday without as much as an ankle bracelet.

Volz, who last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud for his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, received only probation as punishment, a reward for cooperating with the government and serving as the lynchpin in prosecuting others.

Volz faced a maximum of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines for his guilty plea.

Volz’s cooperation was instrumental in William Heaton’s decision to wear a wire in a meeting with Ney, then his boss. Heaton had succeeded Volz as Ney’s top aide when Volz went to work for Abramoff in 2002.

Clad in a dark-blue suit and gold tie, a tearful Volz delivered an abject apology and took full responsibility for his actions before the judge entered the sentence.

“I am here today because I broke the law,” he said, reading from a piece of paper he took from his pocket as he approached the podium in front of Huvelle. “I am ashamed and embarrassed by what I have done. I broke the law because I failed to set the right priorities. They were my decisions, my crimes.”

Volz shook hands with prosecutors and investigating agents before hugging family members who came to the hearing.

“I am completely responsible,” he said solemnly. “I stand here ready for the consequences.”

Before Volz’s speech, his attorney provided a sympathetic narrative about how his client became entangled with Ney and Abramoff while still a young, impressionable college student. Volz’s parents were school teachers, the lawyer said, and he had a “wholesome upbringing.” He got to know Ney while attending college in Ohio. Ney then brought him to Washington, where Volz took night classes at the University of Maryland to finish his undergraduate degree.

Ney and Volz then shared an apartment for four years. In 2001, he accepted a job with Abramoff’s lobbying firm and “found himself treading perilously close to the one-year [lobbying] ban” and eventually went well over the edge because of “blind ambition” and a desire to please both Abramoff and Ney, he argued.

“In many ways, this is a classic American story — very heady stuff,” the lawyer said.

The attorney also noted that Volz is now working with U.S. Vets, an organization that helps homeless veterans, a job he took after turning down a higher-paying position as a salesman.

“The government has clearly viewed you as the key to their case against Congressman Ney,” Huvelle said.

Prosecutors underscored just how extensive Volz’s assistance was in a memo to the judge recommending home confinement. They noted that at one point Ney suspected that Volz was cooperating with the government and left two angry messages on his voice mail. Volz turned those voice mails over to prosecutors, who argued that they would have played an important role in convicting Ney if he had decided to fight the charges and go to trial.

Ney pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements, and in January was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.