PHILADELPHIA _ Former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday, the maximum punishment he faced after pleading guilty earlier this year in a federal corruption case.
Held in custody since his surprise decision in June to abruptly end his trial and admit his crimes, the city's former top prosecutor looked tired but attentive as he was ushered into court in a brown T-shirt and loose-fitting, prison-issue khakis, and with handcuffs around his wrists.
He declined to address the court directly, but in a statement read by his lawyer Thomas Burke, Williams called his election "the honor of his life" and apologized to his friends, his family and the citizens of Philadelphia for what he described as "my sins, my selfishness, my bad judgment."
"I have made mistakes _ mistakes of character and judgment," the statement read. "These are my mistakes and my mistakes alone."
But U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond showed little sympathy, delivering a harsh dressing-down for Williams' "profound misconduct."
"Almost from the time you took office, you sold yourself to the parasites you surrounded yourself with," Diamond said. "You humiliated the men and women of the District Attorney's Office."
Then, homing in on perhaps the most attention-grabbing of Williams' crimes _ his admission that he stole money set aside for his mother's nursing home care _ Diamond held back little.
Williams "dumped her like a sack of potatoes _ or he washed his hands of her," the judge said, so he could be "a high-roller at various restaurants in town."
The judge ridiculed Williams' request to be permitted to see his mother.
"The English language doesn't have the words to capture the outrageousness of that request," Diamond said. "The defendant stole from his mother, and now he wants to visit her?"
In addition to the prison term, Williams was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in forfeiture and restitution _ an amount to which he had at least partially agreed in his plea deal with prosecutors.
Tuesday's hearing provided only the latest setback for Williams, whose public life in the last year has been marked by one embarrassing blow after another _ most of them self-inflicted.
Ushered into office in 2010 as a promising candidate pledging to reshape the city's justice system, Williams was dogged by a series of personal and financial scandals throughout his eight years in office.
Earlier this year, his failure to report more than $175,000 in gifts from wealthy benefactors prompted the city's ethics board to fine him $62,000 _ the largest penalty against a single candidate in the body's 11-year history. Williams dropped his bid for a third term soon after, apologizing to his staff for the shame he had brought upon his office.
Then came the federal bribery and corruption case that led to his sentencing Tuesday.
In two weeks of trial, federal prosecutors painted Williams as a crooked politician who took every opportunity to enrich himself through fraud, theft from his campaign fund, and bribes accepted from generous donors.
Two wealthy businessmen testified that they had showered Williams with gifts of cash, luxury goods and all-expenses-paid travel to an upscale Dominican Republic resort and other vacation spots hoping that he would repay their generosity by using his office to remove various legal hurdles they faced.
When that largesse was not enough to support Williams' high-end tastes, government witnesses said, the district attorney raided his own campaign accounts and money set aside for his aging mother's nursing home care.
Williams sought to end the onslaught of embarrassing and public testimony by resigning from office and accepting a plea deal from prosecutors midway through the trial _ one that severely limited the sentence he might have received had he been convicted on all the charges he had faced.
But even then, Diamond surprised Williams by ordering that the ex-prosecutor be immediately taken into custody until his sentencing date _ a rare step in white-collar criminal cases.
For the last four months, Williams has been confined to an 8-by-10 cell in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center's Special Housing Unit, as a safety precaution because of his role as a former law enforcement officer.
There he has spent 23 hours a day and eaten his meals. He has been let outside for an hour of exercise each day. Guards have allowed him one visitor a week, and only one 15-minute phone call a month, as per the unit's protocol.
Once Williams is assigned to the prison where he will serve out the rest of his term, his conditions could improve.
As a nonviolent white-collar defendant, he may be sent by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to a federal prison with less severe security measures.
The bureau is expected to make its assignment for Williams in the coming months.
