Former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed received a probation sentence today.
What began as a man’s ambitious vision to develop a network of museums in a city of 50,000 people ended today with two years of probation for former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed.
This afternoon, Judge Kevin Hess sentenced the former “mayor for life” to probation for 20 counts of receiving stolen property. Reed must also pay a $2,000 fee plus the cost of the prosecution.
Hess gave Reed’s stage-four cancer, guilty plea and clean criminal record as reasons for the probation sentencing, as opposed to jail time. He also cited improvements made to the city during Reed’s tenure as mayor, which are “visible to anyone who bothered to look out the windows of this courthouse,” he said.
In addition, Hess called the nearly 500 counts of corruption charges that the state initially brought against the seven-term mayor a “whole lot more smoke with very little fire.”
Hess received numerous letters about the case, including a 161-page victim’s impact statement filed by the city. In it, the city requested a two-to-five-year jail sentence
“We felt that would have been an appropriate sentence given the magnitude of the crime and a continued pattern by the mayor for not accepting the responsibility of his actions,” said current Mayor Eric Papenfuse, clearly disappointed by the judge’s decision.
Deputy Attorney General Rebecca Franz, the lead prosecutor, said that her office achieved justice today and accepts the sentencing.
“We have brought closure for the citizens of Harrisburg and the Commonwealth,” she said.
Papenfuse said this sentencing did not send “a strong message about public corruption.”
He did see some positives. Reed’s guilty plea for these 20 counts leaves the door open for civil suits and possible charges against other individuals from the Reed administration.
“The city currently is a party to what could become millions and millions of dollars in a civil suit,” he said.
The city seeks the return of the artifacts and “tractor-trailer loads” of public documents from Reed’s 28 years as mayor, he said.
“He packed up every public record associated with his time in office,” Papenfuse said. “We want them all back.”
Reed also alluded to an unfinished ending to his tenure as mayor.
“One day, there may be additional details about the case that come to light, and so forth, which I think you’ll find very interesting at that time,” Reed said, adding, “but please don’t sit on my doorstep to try to find out.”
He will now focus on his stage-four prostate cancer, which will eventually spread and become bone cancer, he said.
“It is a relief for the whole thing to be over,” Reed said.
Author: Danielle Roth
