Pa. Supreme Court temporarily pulls law license for former Lower Southampton solicitor

Posted April 16, 2018

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has frozen the law license of a former Lower Southampton solicitor who recently pleaded guilty to misleading federal agents investigating an ongoing corruption case in Lower Southampton.

Michael Savona

In a pair of decisions dated April 9, the state’s high court “temporarily suspended” the law license for Michael J. Savona, formerly of the prestigious Doylestown Borough law firm, Eastburn and Gray. The orders do not indicate how long the suspension will be effective.

Attorney Mark Sheppard, who is representing Savona, said Monday that his client initiated the suspension process with the state Supreme Court disciplinary board in December, when he began to withdrawal from legal practice.

“This was expected,” Sheppard said, describing the suspension.

Savona, who was Lower Southampton’s solicitor from January 2014 through December 2016, entered a guilty plea last month to a single charge of false statements in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. His sentencing is scheduled for June 12.

Authorities allege the attorney lied to FBI investigators about his knowledge of an alleged $10,000 bribe involving former Lower Southampton District Judge John Waltman, 60, of Lower Southampton, and former Public Safety Director Robert P. Hoopes, 70, of Doylestown Township, from a salesman seeking to erect an electronic billboard in the township.

Federal investigators allege Savona acted as a middle man between a former digital sign salesman, who allegedly offered a bribe to Waltman and Hoopes to lock in a reduced lease agreement for the proposed billboard. The deal later fell apart and the proposal never went before supervisors for consideration.

Eastburn and Gray requested, and received, Savona’s resignation on Dec. 6, one day after the release of a second superseding federal indictment in the Lower Southampton corruption case involving Waltman, Hoopes and former deputy state constable Bernard Rafferty, 63, of Lower Southampton. At the time, Savona was serving as solicitor in at least four towns in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

Waltman and Hoopes are awaiting trial later this year on charges including money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud, Travel Act bribery. Hoopes is also accused of witness tampering. Last month Rafferty entered a guilty plea to money laundering and mail fraud.