CINCINNATI — Once a rising political star, former councilman PG Sittenfeld will serve 16 months in prison after being convicted on public corruption charges following a sting that has netted three Cincinnati City Council members since 2020.
The sentencing hearing in front of U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Cole began at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Several high-profile business and nonprofit leaders were set to testify about Sittenfeld’s heavy-handed fundraising tactics while prosecutors attempted to show a pattern of behavior that they believe warrants a lengthy prison sentence.
“This was not a single event, one-off deal, or momentary lapse in judgment … This is not faithful public service or even ‘politics as usual’—this is corruption,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.
Prosecutors had wanted Sittenfeld to spend 33 to 41 months in prison, while Sittenfeld asked for house arrest and community service, in part, he said because of the uniqueness of his case.
Cole sentenced Sittenfeld to 16 months in prison with one year of supervised release. Sittenfeld could report on Dec. 1, but his lawyers said they are going to appeal.
"This isn't over," they told WCPO's Bret Buganski after the sentencing hearing.
Sittenfeld’s three-week trial captivated the region, with the courtroom filled on most days with his supporters and family, law clerks and lawyers, media and even a federal judge watching Sittenfeld on the witness stand.
A jury found Sittenfeld guilty on one charge of bribery and one charge of attempted extortion for taking $20,000 in campaign donations from undercover FBI agents who were posing as developers and asking for help on a Downtown project.
Before he was sentenced, Sittenfeld spoke to the court asking for compassion and grace, at one point getting choked up as he said he's grown "and changed a lot" as a father and husband.
Federal prosecutor Kenneth Parker declined to speak after the case but released a statement saying, "Sittenfeld earned today's prison sentence ... A jury of his peers reviewed the evidence against him and found him guilty. Now, he must be accountable for his actions. Not only did he break the law, but he also violated the public's trust. Public service is just that: public service, not self service."
The judge took into consideration Sittenfeld's lack of criminal history prior to the conviction, but spoke about standing for the rule of law, adding that "we will not tolerate corrupt behavior."
NKU law professor Ken Katkin said he believes Sittenfeld has a good chance of overturning his conviction on appeal and thinks the case could ultimately end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s actually impossible to find another situation in any bribery conviction where all of the so-called bribes were properly disclosed, properly reported and never converted to personal use or improperly spent,” NKU law professor Ken Katkin said, noting that Sittenfeld never pocketed the money.
Former councilman Jeff Pastor faces up to two years in prison when he is sentenced later this year, after pleading guilty to honest services wire fraud in a separate scheme.
Pastor was accused of taking $55,000 in bribes, and a luxury weekend trip to Miami on a private plane, in exchange for votes on two development deals.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott sentenced former council member Tamaya Dennard to 18 months in prison in 2020, after she pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud for accepting $15,000 as part of a scheme to exchange her votes for money. She served roughly a year of that prison sentence, followed by several months of house arrest.
Goodin predicts that Sittenfeld will get a lengthier prison sentence than his former colleagues because he went to trial and still has not accepted responsibility for his crimes.
“The number one way a criminal defendant in federal court obtains a more lenient sentence is by accepting responsibility and trying to make amends for what they did,” said Goodin, who read Sittenfeld’s 75-page sentencing memorandum and didn’t see any remorse.
“His acceptance of responsibility here is so hollow and so lacking and so scripted, that it doesn’t really in my mind count as an acceptance of responsibility,” Goodin said. “He’s leaving his greatest argument on the table. All the stuff about what a great high school student he was is really beside the point.”
The majority of Sittenfeld’s lengthy memo detailed his successes from an elementary school talent show, to standing up to bullies in high school, through his election as class president at Princeton University, and his weekly men’s Bible study as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University.
It described his success as the youngest person ever elected to Cincinnati City Council in 2011, at age 27. The memo quoted support letters from prominent Cincinnatians such as former mayor Mark Mallory, former councilman Chris Seelbach, police officers and former prosecutors, and former journalists such as Deb Dixon and Jay Hanselman.
“P.G. was charged in late November 2020. He has spent almost three years under indictment and as a defendant. Soon after his indictment, he … voluntarily withdrew from the campaign in which he was widely expected to become Cincinnati’s next mayor – a crushing and shocking turn of events after devoting his entire adult life to various forms of public service,” according to the memo.
Other letters of support came from the preschool teacher of Sittenfeld’s older son, and his sister, best-selling author Curtis Sittenfeld, who wrote, , “P.G is the primary in-person helper for our widowed 75-year-old mother,” which includes getting her to and from medical appointments, and “household tasks for her such as going to the grocery store when the weather is bad, helping her if she has Internet problems or when her printer is finicky.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Black sentenced former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to 20 years in prison earlier this summer, after a jury convicted him in the largest public corruption scheme in state history.
Black ordered U.S. Marshals to take Householder and his co-defendant, former Ohio GOP Chair Matt Borges, immediately into custody from the courtroom. Both spent two months in the Butler County Jail before being transferred to prison.
“I think he would have been much better off trying to negotiate a plea bargain up front. There was clear evidence of quid pro quo in this case. He may not agree. He will probably go to his grave decrying his innocence,” Goodin said.
Sittenfeld turned down a plea deal that could have exposed him to as much as 2 years in prison or as little as probation.
