PITTSBURGH — A former city employee was sentenced Tuesday to probation for accepting $6,000 in bribes and blamed the former police chief for orchestrating a scheme that helped the chief’s friend land a $327,000 contract to install radios and computers in city police cars.

Christine Kebr, 57, was a systems analyst for the city when she accepted the money from the police chief’s friend, Arthur Bedway Jr.

The bid from Bedway’s business, Alpha Outfitters, was crafted to appear as if it came from a woman-owned company in order to take advantage of city set-asides for minority and woman-owned businesses, federal prosecutors said.

Kebr, who was sentenced to three years of probation, and Bedway have both claimed the 2007 scheme was the brainchild of former police Chief Nathan Harper.

“She’s a good soldier; she was dedicated to the police and Chief Harper, and that was her first lapse in judgment,” defense attorney Gary Gerson told U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon.

Harper’s attorneys have consistently denied these accusations.

Harper resigned last February and later pleaded guilty to unrelated federal charges.