DA seeks court removal of lawmaker convicted of bribery

HARRISBURG, PA. >> A county prosecutor asked a Pennsylvania judge Friday to eject a state representative from office, one week after she was sentenced to probation in a bribery case.

Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo filed a civil suit that seeks the removal of state Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown of Philadelphia.

Lowery Brown, 52, was convicted in October of taking $4,000 in bribes from a confidential informant. A week later, the Democrat was unopposed and re-elected to a sixth term.

Her felony bribery conviction bars her from serving under the state constitution, and officials have predicted that her fellow lawmakers will not seat her if she attempts to be sworn in next month for the coming two-year term.

Her lawyer did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, and the man answering the phone at her west Philadelphia district office said he was not able to contact her.

“By failing to resign her seat, (the) defendant is flaunting this court’s judgment of sentence and requiring the commonwealth to expend additional resources to compel her to do what concern for public resources and respect for the constitution of this commonwealth both demanded that she would have done voluntarily,” deputy prosecutor Mike Sprow wrote in a companion filing to Judge Scott Evans.