Former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed, left, at a Senate hearing on the incinerator financings in 2012.
A state grand jury has approved criminal charges against Stephen Reed, the former Harrisburg mayor who left the capital city with hundreds of millions in debt after 28 years in office, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Reed, 65, was expected to be arraigned Tuesday before a Dauphin County district judge, the sources said. The charges are not known.
Reed has been a presumed target of the grand jury’s probe since its existence was first confirmed in 2013. It is reportedly investigating the origins of a debt crisis tied to a city incinerator that nearly pushed Harrisburg into bankruptcy.
Past reports suggested the probe may have expanded into other areas of governance under Reed, a mayor who has been both praised for his vision and work ethic and criticized for reckless spending and an autocratic governing style.
In particular, investigators were said to have taken an interest in how Reed used the Harrisburg Authority, a municipal financing entity, as a kind of checking account for pet projects, such as acquiring artifacts for a hoped-for network of museums.
TheBurg reported in April that records of a $33,000 reimbursement, paid to Reed in 2003 for artifacts he ostensibly bought for city archives, were among the materials presented to jurors.
In early June, investigators raided Reed’s home on Cumberland street in Midtown, hauling away boxes and numerous Western-style artifacts that Reed later told reporters were all his personal possessions.
The grand jury was most recently confirmed to have been extended by court order another six months to early January of next year. It is not known whether the investigation is ongoing or the filing of charges means the jury’s work is concluded.
Jeffrey Johnson, a spokesman for the office of Attorney General Kathleen Kane, which is overseeing the investigation, declined to comment Monday but said that more information may be available Tuesday.
