CINCINNATI — Former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld will begin serving his 16-month sentence for public corruption Jan. 2, and may share space at the same prison camp as his once-colleague at City Hall: Jeff Pastor.
Last week the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied Sittenfeld’s request to delay prison until after he had finished appeals for bribery and attempted extortion convictions.
That means in four weeks Sittenfeld will report to the minimum-security prison and camp at Ashland in Eastern Kentucky. This is where many white-collar criminals from the Cincinnati area serve time, including Evans Landscaping owner Doug Evans who spent several months there in 2021 for minority contracting fraud.
Ashland’s prison camp has a campus-like setting and is only a few hours away from Cincinnati.
Other options are Elkton, a low security prison in northern Ohio where former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is serving a 20-year sentence for public corruption,or Milan, a low-security prison in Eastern Michigan where former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges is serving a 5-year sentence for public corruption.
“It’s certainly not Shawshank or anything of that nature. It’s mostly other white-collar type defendants who go there,” attorney and former prosecutor Steve Goodin said about Ashton. “But any time away from your family is tough and terrible. I mean it is still jail.”
An orientation manual for Ashland describes 6 a.m. wakeup calls, mandatory uniforms, recreational activities such as painting and drawing, exercise equipment and a law library.
“For many of you, this will be your first prison experience … you will be surprised to find that this camp operates with a minimum of rules and regulations. You will find considerable freedom of movement and less direct supervision that you might normally expect,” according to the manual.
Sanitation scores for housing units determine meal rotation, participation in programs and television viewing privileges.
Goodin said many of his former clients who served time at Ashland felt that it gave them time to reflect on life and they emerged as changed people.
If U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland orders Pastor to prison at his Dec. 21 sentencing hearing, then there’s a good chance he will go to Ashland with Sittenfeld, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons will make the final decision, Goodin said.
Pastor pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud in June, for a separate public corruption scheme. He admitted to taking a $15,000 bribe as a monthly “retainer” for his help on development projects. His plea deal guarantees he will not spend more than two years in prison and allows him to argue for probation.
Pastor, a Republican, served on City Council with Sittenfeld, a Democrat, for nearly three years until the FBI arrested both men, a week apart, in November 2020.
“I do think there is some value there to the city and helping it close the door on what happened,” said Goodin, who was appointed as Pastor’s replacement on council in 2020 and served for roughly one year. “To me, the most important thing is trying to break up that culture that was at City Hall.”
FBI agents descended on City Hall in 2018 and 2019, posing as developers who wanted help on a downtown development project to bring a boutique hotel and gambling to Convention Place Mall. Federal officials described a culture of corruption and pay-to-play atmosphere at City Hall.
“You can’t tell the story of PG without backing up and looking at the explosive growth we’ve really seen downtown since 2012 through 2020. You’re talking about over $3 billion worth of investment in downtown and Over-the-Rhine,” Goodin said. “There were a lot of folks who wanted in, and the city through zoning and its TIF disbursements … really played a big role there. There were a lot of people scrambling to get influence with the city for good and bad.”
Sittenfeld maintains his innocence and testified at his July 2022 trial that he was a pro-development leader who was working in the best interests of the city, and that the $20,000 in campaign donations he received were not bribes. But the jury didn’t believe him.
Now as Sittenfeld considers his future, after prison, Goodin believes he will still be a high-profile city figure, but not as an elected leader.
“I don’t think we’ve heard the last from him by any means … I would imagine he will have a pretty public life upon his return in some way,” said Goodin who predicts Sittenfeld may be the future face of a nonprofit or civic organization.
That would be similar to the current life of former council member Tamaya Dennard. FBI arrested her in a separate public corruption scheme in February 2020.She pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud, served roughly a year in prison, and is now the director of a nonprofit helping people who have criminal convictions get jobs through the Center for Employment Opportunities’ Cincinnati, according to her LinkedIn profile.
