A man once dubbed “mayor for life” of Pennsylvania’s capital will avoid jail and serve two years’ probation after pleading guilty this week to stealing historic artifacts originally intended for a Wild West museum.
Stephen Reed, the former mayor of Harrisburg for 28 years, is widely credited for much of the growth during his tenure in the city of 50,000 residents — including the addition of a minor-league baseball team and the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, a four-year college that opened in 2005.
But prosecutors in 2015 — five years after he left office — flipped that longstanding image on its head when they indicted the former Democratic mayor, charging him with using public money to illegal obtain artifacts and other memorabilia for the museum that never got off the ground. On Friday, the bizarre case came to an end when Senior Judge Kevin A. Hess spared Reed jail time and instead sentenced him to two year’s probation, PennLive.com reports.
Reed declined to discuss details of the case following the hearing, saying he would begin to focus on the “significant health challenge” he faces.
In 2015, Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s attorney general at time and who was later sentenced to prison in October for up to 23 months on perjury charges – called the allegations against Reed “one of the most disturbing cases of public corruption” she had ever seen and the reason for Harrisburg’s growing financial troubles.
“Mayor Reed used taxpayer money to further his own interests,” Kane said when announcing the charges. “His conduct is at the root of the fiscal issues that continue to plague the City of Harrisburg today.”
Reed, now 67, had long maintained his innocence but pleaded guilty Monday to 20 counts of receiving stolen property in connection to the museum. His attorney said he’s suffered from cancer and think putting the entire sage behind him is the best course of action.
“We think this is an opportunity now to move on with his life and get the treatment he needs for his illness,” attorney Henry Hockeimer Jr. told the Associated Press.
Reed’s unexpected plea on Monday happened just before jury selection was set to begin on 114 counts. He was originally charged with 499 counts ranging from misapplication of entrusted property to theft of services.
“We think that this achieves justice for not only the commonwealth, but the city of Harrisburg,” Joe Grace, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, told the Associated Press.
Reed ultimately pleaded guilty to 20 counts of receiving stolen property for Wild West memorabilia valued at more than $19,000, including a $3,500 brochure about Geronimo published in 1903 and a check signed by an outlaw worth $100, PennLive.com reports.
The original charges against Reed accused him of spending millions of dollars over the course of 15 years buying artifacts – some of which were reportedly fake – to be featured in the museum, including a life-sized sarcophagus, a full suit of armor and a “vampire hunting kit” purchased at taxpayers’ expense.
Reed insisted after entering the guilty plea that there was no criminal intent behind his actions.
“How they got into some box when moving out of office seven years ago, I don’t know,” he told PennLive.com. “The process of packing was done under my supervision and I therefore must take responsibility for the items to which I am pleading.”
Reed said he was “gut-wrenchingly humiliated” but defended his legacy, saying it “in no way” diminished his accomplishments as the former mayor of Harrisburg.
Reed faces up to nine months in prison for the two felony counts of receiving stolen property at his sentencing, which is scheduled for tomorrow. Probation is also a possibility, PennLive.com.
“My faith in God sustains and guides me and has for a long time – long before the stage four cancer diagnosis and long before this case,” Reed told reporters on Monday. “The precepts of faith require that I take responsibility for this error and that was my ultimate deciding factor in doing this plea.”