Ex-Traffic Court judge's tax case not so simple
Former Judge Michael Sullivan wanted to plead guilty in a tax case, but a federal judge says he might not accept the plea.
IT SEEMED that it would be a simple guilty-plea hearing.
Former Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge Michael Sullivan - who was acquitted by a jury last year on all charges in the Traffic Court ticket-fixing case - was to enter a guilty plea in a separate misdemeanor tax case related to his family's Fireside Tavern.
The feds last month slapped Sullivan with a criminal charge of failing to report and pay payroll taxes in connection with the bar on Marshall Street near Oregon Avenue in South Philly.
Sullivan's criminal-defense attorney, Henry Hockeimer, said last month that Sullivan would plead guilty in the tax case.
Yesterday, Sullivan, 51, who said he's been working as a union heavy-equipment operator, stood before U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno, ready to plead guilty in the tax case.
But as Richard Barrett, chief of the U.S. Attorney's Public Corruption Unit, began to tell Robreno about the case - Sullivan was one of the owners of the Fireside; the bar paid employees in cash; an accountant simply wrote down numbers given to him - Robreno began to have questions.
Was there any complicity by the accountant? the judge asked.
Barrett, who was filling in for the assigned prosecutor - who was busy in a trial yesterday - said he believed that the accountant had no hands-on involvement in the bar's operations.
The judge asked whether Sullivan agreed with that.
After a pause, the judge asked: "Well, what's this case all about?"
Asked if Sullivan is obligated to cooperate with the feds as part of his plea, Barrett said no.
When asked by the judge about the other owners of the bar, Barrett said they were family members, and one owner died, but Sullivan was the one who signed the business' income-tax returns.
Robreno wanted more information and said he might not accept the plea. He continued the hearing for 30 days. A new date was not scheduled.
Sullivan faces a maximum possible sentence of one year in prison. Barrett said there was no agreed-upon sentence for Sullivan as part of the plea agreement.
Hockeimer last month said that Sullivan, by pleading guilty, "is hopeful that the government's focus on him and his family will come to an end." Yesterday, Hockeimer, when asked by a reporter to say what this case is about, declined to comment. Sullivan also declined.
Sullivan was the only full-time Traffic Court judge acquitted of all charges in last year's ticket-fixing trial. The jury acquitted all seven defendants of fraud charges, but convicted four judges of lying to a grand jury or the FBI. Sullivan had not testified before a grand jury nor given a statement to the FBI and was not charged with perjury.
The four convicted judges were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel to terms of about two years in prison.
On Twitter: @julieshawphilly