Ex-SEPTA manager admits taking bribes of Barbra Streisand tickets, pope’s visit hotel stays, and thousands in cash

A former SEPTA manager admitted Tuesday that he extorted bribes of cash, concert tickets, and pricey hotel stays in exchange for steering contracts worth millions to a company overseeing maintenance for the transit agency’s surveillance cameras.

James Stevens, SEPTA’s former director of video evidence, pleaded guilty to federal charges including conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and honest services fraud — the most serious of which could send him to prison for as long as 20 years at a sentencing hearing scheduled for May.

During a hearing in federal court, he told a judge that he routinely demanded payoffs from an executive at Spector Logistics — the Delaware-based firm that held SEPTA’s $4.6 million camera maintenance contract until 2018 — and repeatedly reminded the firm that he had the authority to cancel its contract at any time.

And as prosecutors described it, Stevens, 70, of Somerdale, Camden County, was unstinting with his requests.

Between 2014 and 2019, he had Spector’s chief operating officer — Robert Welsh, 60 — send him monthly cash bribes totaling nearly $86,000, which Stevens referred to as a “consulting fee.” That money came in addition to several pricey restaurant meals he had Welsh pay for across Center City to keep him wined and dined.

For five years in a row, Welsh picked up the tab for Stevens’ departmental SEPTA holiday party at the Center City bar Moriarty’s — at a cost of $4,700.

Welsh also covered the cost when famous figures came through town. When Pope Francis visited Philadelphia in 2015, Welsh booked a set of rooms at the Loews Hotel in Center City so his own staff could be on hand in case of problems with SEPTA’s cameras during the visit. Stevens demanded Welsh hand them over to him so he and other transit agency staffers could use them, instead, prosecutors said.

The contractor bought Stevens tickets to Barbra Streisand and Billy Joel tour stops in Philadelphia in 2016 and 2017 at a total cost of $2,300. Stevens even demanded Welsh donate $4,400 to a supposed charity he oversaw — money prosecutors say the SEPTA manager pocketed and later used to pay his mortgage.

Hoping to ensure that flow of benefits continued even after he retired from SEPTA, Stevens insisted that Welsh offer him a post-retirement job.

And again and again, Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen wrote in court filings tied to Stevens’ guilty plea, “Welsh acceded to Stevens’ demands and requests because … without SEPTA [and the contracts Stevens steered his way], Welsh’s business likely could not survive.”

Throughout, Lappen said, the two took pains to hide the corrupt nature of their dealings by communicating on a special cell phone Welsh purchased for Stevens and a separate email account on Spector’s servers he created for Stevens to discuss their bribery arrangement.

But when it came to keeping Stevens happy, Welsh had his limits.

In 2017, prosecutors said, Stevens insisted that Welsh give his administrative assistant at SEPTA a part-time job when she said she was struggling with money. The SEPTA manager drew up a contract himself between Spector and the woman, setting her pay rate at $25 an hour. Welsh, though, refused to sign it, insisting he couldn’t afford the addition to his payroll.

Within months, Stevens informed him that SEPTA would be terminating Spector’s contract. And without the influx of transit agency money, Welsh concluded, his company couldn’t survive.

Stevens, Lappen said, even sought to stage manage that, instructing Welsh to sell his firm to the business that would be taking over the camera maintenance contract. Welsh eventually sold Spector to that company for $300,000, prosecutors said.

Despite the boldness that prosecutors attributed to Stevens in court filings, he said little in court Tuesday as he stood before U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert to enter his guilty plea. He answered a series of questions from the judge with clipped, yes-or-no answers.

His lawyer, Rhonda Lowe, noted afterward that aside from the last few years of his time at SEPTA, her client had an otherwise unblemished 40-year career with the transit agency. Stevens will likely lose his pension and other retirement benefits as a result of his conviction.

“He has taken full responsibility for the bad decisions he made and is incredibly remorseful for the impact his actions have had,” Lowe said. “What is truly sad is that Mr. Stevens threw away [his] SEPTA career because of his decisions.”

Welsh, who now lives in Arizona, pleaded guilty to his role in the bribery scheme last year and awaits sentencing.

Stevens’ extortion scheme is only the latest corruption scandal to plague the Philadelphia region’s public transportation system, which has seen a series of federal bribery cases lodged against managers and employees in recent years.

Three former SEPTA managers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to five years and four more received probation for bilking SEPTA out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by colluding with vendors to charge for goods that were never provided. They all admitted to extorting bribes including hunting supplies, ATV equipment, rare gold coins, and even a whippet puppy, according to court filings.

SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Bush said Tuesday that those workers had either left the transit agency or were fired when their crimes came to light.

The vast majority of SEPTA employees, he said in a statement, “are honest, hardworking, and dedicated to our mission of providing reliable public transportation to our city and region.”

“Incidents like this are rare,” Busch said. “However, when someone engages in fraud and misuse of funds, the authority acts swiftly to make sure they are held accountable.”