It is expected that federal prosecutors will look for prison terms for four former traffic court judges in Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The judges have been convicted of felony counts for lying about fixing tickets even though a jury acquitted all four of corruption charges this summer.

The four judges are Michael Lowry, Robert Mulgrew, Willie Singletary and Thomasine Tynes. Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise Wolf wrote that the four judges “destroyed an entire court system and brought disgrace to the legal profession” when they provided their family, friends and political allies with special treatment.

Wolf said that each of the judges should receive anywhere from two to three years in prison.



"For a judge to give preferential treatment to certain litigants because of their social and political connections turns the system on its head," Wolf wrote. "For that judge then to cover up his wrongdoing by lying in another judicial proceeding is unconscionable."

In her sentencing memo, Wolf claims that the judges continued to commit bad behavior even after they had been charged.

Wolf said that Tynes still communicated with a chief witness against her despite court orders against it. Tynes reportedly texted the witness during the trial in an attempt to influence the testimony the witness would provide.

Earlier this year, Singletary reportedly used his Traffic Court badge to get out of a ticket in Cheltenham even though he had been indicted and was suspended from the bench.

"The government may take the position that a finding of guilty on the perjury count is tantamount to the jury's endorsement of the government's allegations of ticket-fixing,” said Mulgrew's attorney, Angela Halim, in court filings. "That is a misleading position. Mr. Mulgrew was unanimously acquitted of committing any crime relating to his duties on the bench in Traffic Court."

The judge who will issue the sentences is that of U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel.

Outside of the sentencing, all four of the judges have already lost their jobs and can lose their pensions.

"Our system of justice depends on the integrity of judicial proceedings," Wolf wrote to the judge in the sentencing memo for Mulgrew. "It falls to this court to ensure that [their] story is a cautionary tale."