State lawmaker gets probation in bribery case

HARRISBURG >> A state representative convicted of taking $4,000 in bribes from a confidential informant received probation Friday from a judge who was critical of the undercover investigation that snared her.

Democratic Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to 23 months of probation and ordered to repay the money to the state attorney general’s office.

Neither Lowery Brown nor her defense attorney would say whether she intended to resign immediately. She was unopposed and won a sixth term in the Nov. 6 election, but officials say her felony bribery conviction makes her ineligible under the state constitution to hold office.

“I’m deeply sorry and extremely remorseful that my actions have taken me from my community,” Lowery Brown told Judge Scott Evans.

She thanked the friends, family and supporters who packed the courtroom, and said, “I just take full responsibility for my actions.”

Lowery Brown, 52, who represents a west Philadelphia district, is the sixth black elected official from that city to face legal consequences for their involvement with Tyron Ali, who had secretly been working for the attorney general’s office.

Dauphin County prosecutor Michael Sprow argued for jail time, reminding the judge that she accepted $3,000 of the money while inside her state Capitol office.

“The public placed its trust in this defendant to serve with integrity ... and she failed to do so,” Sprow said.

Prosecutors in the case previously netted guilty or no-contest pleas by four other onetime state lawmakers and a former traffic judge in the city, all Democrats, for taking cash or gifts from Ali. Three other sitting state lawmakers resigned as part of their pleas.

A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said his position is Lowery Brown’s tenure as a state representative ended with her sentencing and she is not eligible to receive her salary or future pension and lifetime health care benefits.

Turzai spokesman Neal Lesher said he hoped Lowery Brown did not seek to begin her next term in January.

“We hope that she would not put everyone through that, but if she decides to, she likely would not be seated,” Lesher said.

Lowery Brown defense attorney Patrick Casey had no response to Turzai.

“The issue of her seat is the next matter that she will get to,” Casey said.

A jury convicted Lowery Brown in October of bribery, five counts of conflict of interest and failing to properly file a financial disclosure form. She said outside the courtroom before sentencing that she planned to appeal. She had no comment afterward and left the courtroom with a coat over her head to avoid being photographed.

Prosecutors persuaded a jury that she took the money in exchange for official favors, while her own lawyers had argued she was entrapped.