Ex-judge is latest to get time in federal ticket-fixing case targeting Philadelphia traffic court
Michael Lowry was acquitted last year on most charges in a federal criminal case targeting Philadelphia traffic court judges accused of fixing tickets.
However, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel gave little credence to arguments by the former jurist’s lawyers Wednesday that being convicted only of perjury, for lying to the feds, should result in a lower sentence, reports the Inquirer.
“We can’t have all sat in this room all summer and have any doubt that these defendants were fixing tickets,” said Stengel of Lowry and three other defendants convicted last year on a small fraction of the criminal charges they faced.
He sentenced Lowry to 18 months in prison. Co-defendant Robert Mulgrew got 18 months in December, and Thomasine Tynes, who was a defendant in multiple cases, got two years. A fourth co-defendant, Willie Singletary, has not been sentenced yet.
Several other judges earlier took pleas. They included former senior Philadelphia traffic court judge Fortunato Perri Sr., who has not yet been sentenced; senior Bucks County magisterial district judge H. Warren Hogeland, who died prior to sentencing; and former Delaware County senior district judge Kenneth Miller.
Miller got one year of probation when he was sentenced last week, which prosecutors recommended because of his cooperation with the government, the Delaware County Daily Times reported.
