Former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski announced this week in a social media post that he is out of prison and back in Allentown.
Pawlowski, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018 after his conviction on 47 charges including corruption and wire fraud, was released from prison June 25, after serving about half his sentence, he previously told The Morning Call via the prison messaging service CorrLinks.
On Friday, Pawlowski posted on a public Facebook page that he is “back in this amazing city” alongside a photo of Allentown’s skyline.
When reached by phone Tuesday, Pawlowski declined to answer questions, saying he could not speak to the media without prior approval from the Bureau of Prisons.
Alan Jennings, a friend of Pawlowski’s, said he has met with the former mayor for lunch and talked to him on the phone several times following his release.
Jennings told The Morning Call that Pawlowski has a job in marketing for a local pharmacy in Allentown, sees his wife Lisa most days, and commutes back and forth from a halfway house in Philadelphia to work in the city.
“He’s getting back into the swing of things,” Jennings said.
Following Pawlowski’s mandatory stay in the halfway house for several months, he will be released into home confinement in Allentown.
Pawlowski previously told The Morning Call he was released after serving only around half of his sentence because he earned “good behavior” credits via the First Steps Act, a 2018 law that allows inmates to shave time off their prison sentences by participating in rehabilitation and other programs.
In an interview with The Morning Call in 2023, Pawlowski said he led a Bible study among his fellow inmates, taught GED classes and participated in a service dog training program.
As part of an FBI probe into Allentown City Hall corruption, Pawlowski and five co-defendants were charged for pay-to-play contract schemes between 2012 and 2015. Investigators found that he and his co-conspirators steered city contracts toward donors to his campaign.
Pawlowski was found guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and other charges. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 2018. His co-defendants pleaded guilty, and received lighter sentences as a result.
Pawlowski consistently maintained his innocence, but in 2024, while seeking a commutation from President Joe Biden, he issued an apology letter, saying he fell under the influence of “corrupt campaign consultants” who helped run his unsuccessful campaigns for higher office.
Pawlowski was mayor of Allentown 2006-18, winning reelection four times, including in the midst of the FBI probe. Before his time as Allentown’s mayor, he was executive director of the Lehigh Housing Development Corp., now known as the Alliance for Building Communities, and Allentown Director of Community and Economic Development under former Mayor Roy Afflerbach.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.