A federal judge sentenced a former Lower Southampton district judge who admitted to participating in money laundering, extortion and bribery while serving on the bench, to 6½ years in federal prison, saying she wanted to send a message to deter other public officials from following his lead.
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| John Watlman |
“Your conduct has contributed in a big way to the public cynicism about public officials,” Judge Gene E.K. Pratter told John Waltman, 61, of Lower Southampton.
Waltman will serve a sentence that is roughly half of the nine to 11 years that prosecutors recommended, and “substantially below” sentencing guidelines, according to Waltman’s defense attorney.
“The evidence in this case was overwhelming,” attorney Louis Busico said following the three-hour hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. “Had Mr. Waltman proceeded to trial he’d have been spending the rest of his life behind bars.”
Besides prison, Waltman was ordered to serve two years supervised probation, perform 150 hours of community service and pay $5,600 in fines and special assessments. Waltman will turn himself in to begin serving his sentence on July 18.
Waltman was the first of three former Lower Southampton public officials to be sentenced this week in the ongoing federal corruption investigation into what prosecutors called a “pervasive abuse of public power.” Former Lower Southampton Public Safety Director and attorney Robert P. Hoopes, 72, of Doylestown, and former deputy state constable Bernard Rafferty, 63, of Lower Southampton, who also have pleaded guilty, are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
Waltman, who prosecutors described as the trio’s “high-level decision-maker,” pleaded guilty in January to conspiring with Hoopes and Rafferty in 2015 and 2016 to launder $400,000 they believed came from illegal proceeds in exchange for an $80,000 payoff, accepting a $1,000 bribe to fix a traffic ticket, and extorting local businesses with promises of steering township contracts and development approvals to them in exchange for kickbacks, and threats of retribution and zoning red tape if they resisted.
U.S. Attorney Louis Lappen argued that Waltman’s conduct disgraced the honor and responsibility associated with his judicial position.
“It was truly staggering to see what he was about,” Lappen said. “The ease with which they extorted people is astounding.”
As a judiciary member, it was Waltman’s duty to report illegal behavior, but instead he sought to profit from it, the prosecutor pointed out, calling it a “complete abdication” of his judicial role. The collateral damage of his conduct is with the public employees and community who have to live with a tarnished reputation.
“They have to live with the stigma,” Lappen said.
A lifelong Lower Southampton resident, Waltman had been entrenched in local politics for decades. He was the former chairman of the Lower Southampton Republican Committee. He also was the longtime elected state constable before he was appointed in 2010 to take over as Lower Southampton’s district judge after his sister, Susan McEwen, retired on the heels of an investigation by the state Judicial Conduct Board alleging she altered court records for a family member and verbally abused a police officer.
More than two dozen family, friends and supporters of Waltman wrote character letters on his behalf, Pratter said.
A knot of family and friends sat in court behind Waltman, including his wife, Nicole, a former first-deputy prothonotary for Bucks County. Three spoke as character witnesses.
Leo Lapat described Waltman as a friend he has known for 25 years.
“I know him as an honest person,” Lapat said.
He testified when he planned to subdivide his property he asked Waltman for help since he was a surveyor while serving in the U.S. Army.
“He never asked me for a penny,” Lapat added.
Waltman’s mother-in-law Margaret Pissol testified he was a great son-in-law and stepdad to her daughter’s two sons.
“I can’t say how much my family loves him,” she added.
Stepson Taylor Harbison said Waltman played a major role in helping him become a better man.
“No matter what I’ve done ... he’s stuck by me,” Harbison said.
Waltman, speaking for the first time about his crimes, told the judge he knew he was breaking the law, but he believed it was for the “greater good.”
When Pratter asked Waltman to explain that greater good, he responded that the unnamed “landmark” restaurant that he and his co-defendants sought to broker a deal to sell, would help revitalize the community.
Waltman did not mention that he and the defendants believed the restaurant-bar would be sold to businessmen who wanted to use it to launder additional illegal proceeds from health care fraud and drug trafficking, according to the prosecution’s case. In return the trio would get 10 percent of the sale price, something Waltman referred to as a “fee.”
Waltman also implied that Hoopes and Rafferty led him astray, while also admitting he had many opportunities to walk away from the criminal activity but didn’t. As long as no one was harmed, Waltman said, he felt there was no harm in reaping the benefits of his hard work for the public.
“It was really about me. I kidded myself into thinking it was OK to do something bad for the greater good,” he said. “I’ve completely betrayed your trust and you deserved much, much better.”
At one point, Waltman turned around to face the court audience and apologized for his action to a few Lower Southampton police officers seated in the back row.
“I betrayed them and I apologize to them,” he said.
Waltman spoke about helping his family, friends and community. Among his proudest achievements was performing same-sex marriage ceremonies when other judges refused and always trying to “work with things to make them right.”
But, he added, all that good he had done means nothing now.
“No matter what I’ve done, this (criminal conduct) is what I’m gonna be remembered for,” Waltman said. “It hurts.”
“That is part of your punishment,” Pratter responded.
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