Reed was charged Tuesday with hundreds of counts, including criminal solicitation, theft and bribery. News of the purchases were met with derision – Harrisburg is 1,500 miles from Buffalo Bill’s grave in Golden, Colorado – and concern that the city was already staggering under the incinerator debt.
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Public records list the items Reed is accused of purchasing. In another building, many artifacts were rotting or moth-eaten.
Many were improperly stored and in poor condition when the attorney general’s office found them, prosecutors said. “His conduct is at the root of the fiscal issues that continue to plague the city of Harrisburg today”.
“I devoted my life to the city of Harrisburg, and I look forward to waging a vigorous fight against these charges”, he said.
Reed told reporters he came to court to face charges stemming from the grand jury investigation and he was “absolutely” innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.
“I am very forthcoming with what happened and what didn’t happen, and they were there to make sure that we offer any piece of evidence or any bit of information that we can so that she can make her decision as she sees fit”, Kane said. He said he will fight the charges, which he suggested were partly the result of politics.
Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Reed, unnamed city officials and others raised money through debt offerings “for purposes utterly unrelated to” the incinerator and other city projects.
Reed, now 65, later auctioned off some artifacts. The city exited receivership previous year. In 2013, the city sold the incinerator and leased parking facilities for 40 years. “It was from this malignant mass of debt that Reed picked “fees” to be spent on artifacts and curiosities”, prosecutors wrote in the grand-jury report.
Over time, Reed, who had a hand in all of these entities while mayor, allegedly used this public money at his discretion partly to obtain thousands of artifacts, which was a violation of Pennsylvania’s Criminal Code.
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In 2001, Reed opened the National Civil War Museum on an abandoned reservoir overlooking the Capitol – even though none of the war’s major battles occurred in the city. He was arraigned and released on $150,000 unsecured bail to await a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled for July 24.
