A bailiff at the Bexar County courthouse has resigned amid an investigation regarding alleged unauthorized Southwest Airlines tickets sold or given to judges, prosecutors, clerks and others, according to officials.

James Jackson, 40, handed in his resignation Wednesday, days after the Secret Service searched his family's San Antonio home in connection with an investigation into the unauthorized tickets, Bexar County Chief Deputy Rolando Tafolla said. The department had placed Jackson on paid leave Dec. 9, when it was informed of the investigation, Tafolla said.

A lawyer for Jackson and his wife, Althea Jackson, a former Southwest Airlines employee, confirmed law officers have been investigating the Jacksons. No charges have been filed.

"We're still learning about the allegations," said attorney Jay Norton.

Althea Jackson was a former administrative assistant for Southwest's headquarters in Dallas whose duties included handling "goodwill" tickets for customers who have been inconvenienced. She began work there in January 2001 and resigned in September, a Southwest spokeswoman said.

Although the Secret Service would not discuss details, other officials say the agency is tracing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of unauthorized tickets.

"We are working with local authorities on the investigation," said Brandy King, a Southwest spokeswoman in Dallas. "That's all we can say about (the investigation) at this time."

Among those who reportedly bought or received what they believed were authorized tickets were District Attorney Susan Reed, First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg and County Court At Law No. 7 Judge Monica Guerrero. James Jackson was Guerrero's bailiff.

Judge Guerrero said .. she had given him (James Jackson) a $200 watch for his birthday.

Jim McGettigan, agent in charge of the Secret Service in San Antonio, said his agency served a search warrant on Dec. 9, but said no arrests had been made. He declined to provide details, citing the ongoing case.

Jackson had worked for the department since 1993 and was Guerrero's bailiff since 2003.

Members of a regional identity theft task force are combing through a list of at least 70 people in San Antonio who bought or received 4,000 to 5,000 unauthorized airline tickets reportedly worth at least $1.7 million.

The focus has largely been on current or former law enforcement officers.

No one has been charged, but the South Texas Regional Identity Theft Task Force led by the Secret Service has been interviewing current or retired Bexar County sheriff's deputies in connection with the investigation, a lawyer for one of the deputies said Monday.

Other sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing, confirm that agents have been poring over bank accounts and asking questions.

The Secret Service declined to provide details, but attorney Pat Moran, who represents a deputy questioned by the Secret Service, and other sources said the crux of the investigation involves much of a period since 2001 in which former Southwest Airlines employee Althea Jackson worked for that company.

Jackson, 33, of San Antonio, resigned in September from the Dallas-based airline, and her husband, James Jackson, 40, quit his job as a bailiff with the Sheriff's Department last week amid the probe.

The task force searched the Jacksons' San Antonio home Dec. 9, and their lawyer, Jay Norton, confirmed the couple is under investigation.

Investigators are focusing on a three-year window, largely on the period after James Bernard Jackson wed Althea Holden in September 2002.

Jackson had been bailiff for County Court-at-Law No. 7 Judge Monica Guerrero since 2003. He turned in his resignation Wednesday, three days after his bosses put him on paid leave over the investigation.

The same day he resigned, Secret Service agents interviewed another deputy, according to attorney Moran.

"Apparently, an enormous number of courthouse personnel and law enforcement officers used these vouchers over three years, .. " the attorney said.

He added that he was informed by investigators that at least 4,000 tickets were being tracked.

"They're putting a loss on this thing at over $2 million."

Moran described his client as one of at least a handful of go-betweens for people wanting tickets and James Jackson.

"provided to people like judges, prosecutors, court personnel and other law enforcement officers," Moran said.

As an administrative agent for Southwest's headquarters in Dallas, Althea Jackson had access to "numerous goodwill" tickets, Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said.

Such tickets are set aside for customers who have been inconvenienced.

Among them are District Attorney Susan Reed, First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg, County Clerk Margaret Montemayor and Judge Guerrero.

Montemayor said her husband received the tickets from a retired bailiff with whom he played golf. The pair traveled on the tickets.. , Montemayor said.

Herberg said he bought his ticket from another former bailiff and traveled to California with it last year.

.. adding that he didn't remember if he paid $120 or $150 for it.

For at least $120 and the right connection at the Bexar County Courthouse, you were free to move about the country.

Such is one of the claims unfolding amid a probe that has several people sweating over the feds' pointed questions into at least 4,000 round-trip Southwest Airlines tickets allegedly taken illegally.

For at least three years, the tickets, set aside for inconvenienced customers, made it instead to buyers or recipients [throughout the Bexar County Courthouse].

Many got their hands on the tickets through a network of current or former deputies and bailiffs who had one thing in common: They knew James Jackson, 40, the former bailiff for Bexar Court-at-Law No. 7 Judge Monica Guerrero and husband of then-Southwest employee Althea Jackson, 33.

James Jackson resigned Dec. 14 from his job as a bailiff after his bosses put him on paid leave over the investigation. His wife resigned from the airline in September.

In the course of the ongoing probe, conducted by a task force led by the Secret Service, the airline compiled a list of tickets that were used by people who obtained them at the courthouse or elsewhere in San Antonio.

Agents have been treating the tickets as unauthorized "access devices," which fall under a section of federal law that makes it a felony to knowingly possess, sell, distribute or traffic them. The punishment is a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Lawyers, state prosecutors, judges, clerks, additional public officials and others who do business at the courthouse are among the many who ended up with tickets and traveled on them.

In the meantime, some current or former deputies with the Bexar County Sheriff's Department, as well as relatives and acquaintances of the Jacksons, are facing some tough questions from agents: How many tickets did you obtain? Who did you get them for? How much did they pay? Did you get a cut, and if so, how much was it?

So far, one of the most consistent responses to how much the tickets sold for is $120, according to lawyers representing current or former law officers eyed in the probe.

"The rumor mill is making this out to be a gluttonous incident like pigs at the trough," said Pat Moran, lawyer for Bexar sheriff's Deputy Mark Kedrowski, one of the law officers who obtained tickets.

The Jacksons are being investigated as the alleged source of the tickets, but the probe has also focused on who may have bought them in bulk and possibly resold them, officials said.

Kedrowski, for instance, has been questioned concerning his connection to dozens of the tickets.

The trail has also led agents to another former bailiff, Mark Gudanowski, an investigator with the Bexar district attorney's office.

District Attorney Susan Reed; her second-in-command, Cliff Herberg; and Gudanowski flew on some of the tickets obtained from Jackson to Los Angeles for the premier of the movie "National Treasure." The trio were invited to it by Disney after the studio premiered "The Alamo" in 2004 in San Antonio.