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Willie Singletary will you please go now?

(Previously: [1] [2])

Welcome to Philadelphia! We have a lot of political corruption here. I recently wrote about the unusually corrupt Philadelphia Traffic Court, where four of the judges went to the federal pokey, and the state decided there was no way to clean it up, they had to step on it like a cockroach. I ended by saying:

One of those traffic court judges was Willie Singletary, who I've been planning to write about since 2019. But he is a hard worker who deserves better than to be stuck in an epilogue, so I'll try to get to him later this month.

This is that article from 2019, come to fruit at last. It was originally inspired by this notice that appeared at my polling place on election day that year:

(Click for uncropped version)

VOTES FOR THIS CANDIDATE WILL NOT BE COUNTED

DEAR VOTERS:

Willie Singletary, candidate for Democratic Council At-Large, has been removed from the Primary Ballot by Court Order. Although his name appears on the ballot, votes for this candidate will not be counted because he was convicted of two Class E felonies by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which bars his candidacy under Article 2, Section 7 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

That's because Singletary had been one of those traffic court judges. In 2014 he had been convicted of lying to the FBI in connection with that case, and was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison; I think he actually served 12.

That didn't stop Willie from trying to run for City Council, though, and the challenge to his candidacy didn't wrap up before the ballots were printed, so they had to post these notices.

Even before the bribery scandal and the federal conviction, Singletary had already lost his Traffic Court job when it transpired that he had showed dick pics to a Traffic Court cashier.

Before that, when he was campaigning for the Traffic Court job, he was caught on video promising to give favorable treatment to campaign donors.

But Willie's enterprise and go-get-it attitude means he can't be kept down for long. Willie rises to all challenges! He is now enjoying a $90,000 annual salary as a Deputy Director of Community Partnerships in the administration of Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. Parker's spokesperson says "The Parker administration supports every person’s right to a second chance in society.”

I think he might be on his fourth or fifth chance by now, but who's counting? Let it never be said that Willie Singletary was a quitter.

Lorrie once made a remark that will live in my memory forever, about the "West Philadelphia local politics-to-prison pipeline”. Mayor Parker is such a visionary that she has been able to establish a second pipeline in the opposite direction!

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