READING, Pa. – Former Reading mayor Vaughn Spencer, imprisoned since 2019 after being convicted on federal bribery charges, is once again a free man.
Spencer was released from federal custody on Friday after serving almost six years of an eight-year sentence for his role in a pay-to-play case that found him guilty of trading city contracts for campaign donations. This is according to the Philadelphia Residential Reentry Management Office.
The former Reading mayor was previously held at a minimum-security facility in Kentucky before being transferred to a reentry center in Philadelphia prior to his release.
Spencer served as Reading’s mayor from 2012 to 2016.
Federal authorities say Spencer traded city contracts for campaign donations and bribed former Reading City Council president Francis Acosta to try and repeal the city’s anti-pay-to-play ordinance.
Francis Acosta pleaded guilty in 2015 to conspiracy to commit bribery and was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Acosta’s wife, former Reading School Board president Rebecca Acosta, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison following her guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Federal prosecutors say Acosta gave Spencer insider information about school district construction projects that the mayor could pass on to a consultant in exchange for a contribution to Acosta’s campaign for district judge.
At his trial, authorities said Spencer made it clear to donors he would withhold official action from individuals and businesses that didn’t provide satisfactory campaign contributions for his 2015 re-election effort.
Spencer would go on to lose the 2015 mayoral primary to Wally Scott.Â