Allentown mayor convicted of selling his office to campaign donors
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania mayor was convicted Thursday of selling his office to campaign donors in a wide-ranging scheme meant to fuel his political ambitions for statewide office.
Jurors at the federal corruption trial of Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski convicted him of 47 of the 54 charges he faced, a verdict that will force the Democrat from office and end his 12year tenure as leader of Pennsylvania’sthird-largest city.
Mr. Pawlowski, who begana fourth term in January, cried in the courtroom after the verdict was read, and his wifecollapsed in a hallway.
A co-defendant, lawyer Scott Allinson, was convicted of bribing Mr. Pawlowski for legal work for his firm.
Prosecutors said Mr. Pawlowski masterminded a scheme to rig city contracts for legal, engineering, technology and construction work, all in a bid to raise money for his statewide political campaigns. Mr. Pawlowski ran for governor in 2014 and U.S. Senate in 2015, suspending the latter campaign days after the FBI raided City Hall.
Convicted of charges that include conspiracy, bribery, fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI, Mr. Pawlowski will remain free on bail pending sentencing. A sentencing date was not set. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The jury of seven men and five women “held Mayor Pawlowski accountable for selling his office to the highest bidder to fund his personal ambitions,” U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen said in a statement.
The mayor’s political consultants cooperated with the government and recorded hundreds of conversations with him. Several city workers and vendors who pleaded guilty testified against Mr. Pawlowski.
His attorney, Jack McMahon, told jurors it’s not unusual for a politician to solicit campaign contributions from government contractors. He contended that Mr. Pawlowski had been set up by the mayor’s political advisers, Mike Fleck and Sam Ruchlewicz, who made secret recordings that helped form the basis of the prosecution’s case. Mr. Fleck pleaded guilty; Mr. Ruchlewicz wasn’t charged.
The defense also sought to use the government tapes to its own advantage, playing for jurors a June 2015 conversation in which the mayor — unaware he was being recorded — complained about an engineering executive who’d been pressuring him for city work. “I’m not a pay-to-play guy,” Mr. Pawlowski said on the recording.
“Ed Pawlowski was not acting for the people. He was acting for himself,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan told jurors in her closing argument, outlining nine alleged bribery schemes involving the Democratic mayor. She called Mr. Pawlowski a liar who thinks he can “talk his way out of anything.”
In her final words to the jury, Ms. Morgan posed a question for Mr. Pawlowski: “If you weren’t doing anything wrong, if everything was aboveboard, if you didn’t pay to play, when the FBI came to talk to you, why’d you lie?”