Ex-Harrisburg mayor charged
HARRISBURG — The former mayor of Pennsylvania’s capital city was arrested Tuesday on corruption charges, including allegations he unlawfully used public money from various agencies to buy thousands of artifacts for what he claimed was a plan to open a Wild West museum and other historical attractions.
Former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed, who served 28 years in office, obtained the money for the purchases by secretly diverting funds borrowed by municipal agencies and other entities for other purposes that later helped the debt-laden city careen toward bankruptcy, prosecutors said.
“This diversion was actively hidden from investors and the city of Harrisburg,” Attorney General Kathleen Kane said at a Capitol news conference.
Reed, 65, faces hundreds of counts of theft and misapplication of government property, as well as charges of criminal solicitation, bribery and evidence-tampering. Reed said he will fight the charges.
The former mayor spent diverted dollars on thousands of “artifacts and curiosities,” the attorney general’s office said, supposedly for museums that never opened. The purchases included a life-size sarcophagus, antique firearms, a full suit of armor and a vampire hunting kit.
The attorney general’s office said it was still tabulating the total amount of illegally diverted money and the amount illegally spent, a spokesman said.
