Mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania to go on trial on corruption charges

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#U.S. JANUARY 22, 2018 / 6:04 AM / UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO

Mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania to go on trial on corruption charges

David DeKok
3 MIN READ

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - The mayor of Pennsylvania’s third largest city, Allentown, is scheduled to appear at the start of his federal corruption trial on Monday, accused of soliciting campaign contributions in exchange for public contracts.

Mayor Edwin Pawlowski, who was re-elected to fourth term in November despite a sweeping “pay-to-play” indictment, is charged with 54 criminal counts, including bribery, conspiracy and fraud.

Pawlowski and Vaughn Spencer, a fellow Democrat who previously served as mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, were charged in July in a long-running federal corruption investigation.

“Pawlowski and Spencer essentially put a ‘for sale’ sign on City Hall and sold out to the highest bidder,” U.S. Attorney Louis Lappen in Philadelphia said at a news conference when the indictment was unsealed.

Pawlowski goes on trial at U.S. Federal Court in Allentown on Monday with co-defendant Scott Allinson, a lawyer charged with bribery and conspiracy. Judge Juan Sanchez told the jury of seven men and five women selected last week that the trial could last six weeks.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pennsylvania-corruption/mayor-of-allentown-pennsylvania-to-go-on-trial-on-corruption-charges-idUSKBN1FB19C

[packman]

1. I love Pennsylvania-grew up there

But, the corruption in all those small towns is staggering. Everyone who lived in the valleys and river towns in Pa. knows that bribery, back-stabbing, selling out and just down-right thievery is rampant in all those townships, towns, boroughs, and basically anywhere there is an elected official. When I left, the town across the river had just bought several acres of land from a city alderman to build a school on - and that ground was condemned as being polluted by a long-gone mill.