by KYW's Tony Hanson
Former Philadelphia city councilman Rick Mariano, convicted of corruption, has been sentenced to serve 6½ years in a federal prison.
The government had been seeking a sentence of between 8 and 10 years in prison. The defense was arguing for a more lenient sentence.
Mariano was convicted of taking more than $28,000 in bribes in exchange for helping those who paid the bribes with city business.
Just prior to sentencing, Mariano addressed the court. He admitted responsibility for his crimes but said that he didn't want to go to jail and that jail time wouldn't do him any good. He offered to go fight the war in Iraq instead.
Mariano was ordered by federal judge Lawrence Stengel to report on August 7th to begin serving his prison term:
"This is not the case of an otherwise virtuous public servant who made one big, bad mistake. This is a case of a person who held the trust of the citizens of Philadelphia, who had a fiduciary duty to the people who elected him, and who willingly participated in what has been accurately called a 'culture of corruption,' a culture that gives tacit or expressed approval to the buying or trading on of influence."
On his way out of the courtroom, Mariano called the gathered reporters and news photographers "animals."
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