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'Tollie' pleads guilty to fraud

Former sportscaster Don Tollefson now to face sentencing for fleecing more than 200 people through sports ticket schemes.

Former sports personality Don Tollefson, right, talks to an individual near the Bucks County Courthouse Monday, Sept. 29, 2014, after he pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges, including theft by deception and misrepresentation of charity work, in Bucks County Court in Doylestown, Pa. (AP Photo/The Intelligencer, Rick Kintzel)
Former sports personality Don Tollefson, right, talks to an individual near the Bucks County Courthouse Monday, Sept. 29, 2014, after he pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges, including theft by deception and misrepresentation of charity work, in Bucks County Court in Doylestown, Pa. (AP Photo/The Intelligencer, Rick Kintzel)Read moreAP

IN THE END, "Tollie" had no choice but to enter the guilty plea.

The line of people who were ready to take the stand and testify that they'd been ripped off by former local TV sportscaster Don Tollefson was already long - and, ominously, still growing.

So Tollefson pleaded guilty in Bucks County court yesterday to scamming more than 200 people out of at least $317,000 by peddling bogus sports-ticket packages that were supposed to benefit a host of different charities.

It remains to be seen if his dramatic fall from grace will include a lengthy prison term.

Matthew Weintraub, the chief of prosecution for the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, said Tollefson's fate is largely in his own hands.

"If he can come up with some restitution, it will control what kind of sentence he'll get," Weintraub said.

"I hoped that he would have paid some of it today, but he didn't. I really hope that's not a sign of things to come."

Tollefson's sentencing was deferred for 60 days, giving him and his attorney, Sharif Abaza, time to come up with a plan.

For now, he is on house arrest, under electronic monitoring.

"It's important to him to make amends to those that he harmed while he was in the grip of his addiction," Abaza said, noting that Tollefson battled alcoholism for 45 years, and an addiction to painkillers for the past six years.

"He wants to end this chapter of his life."

Abaza said Oct. 10 will mark one year that Tollefson has been clean and sober.

His public unraveling came as a shock to longtime area residents who knew Tollefson as a perpetually cheery, wide-eyed personality who covered local sports during lengthy stints at Fox 29 and 6ABC.

The addiction woes lurked beneath the peppy demeanor. But questions about his charities stretched back more than a decade, the Daily News reported in December, as did allegations of his involvement in a phony Israeli bond scheme in the early 1990s.

The Special Olympics of Pennsylvania, the Salvation Army and a memorial foundation for slain Montgomery County police officer Brad Fox were among the charities that were supposed to have benefited from phony sporting-event ticket packages that Tollefson sold.

He also fronted two charities of his own - One Child Saved and Winning Ways - neither of which were eligible for federal or state tax-exempt status.

Tollefson, a Hall of Fame member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, was finally arrested in February and charged with dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity, theft and violations of the state charitable organizations statute.

Weintraub said the list of victims started at 50 people, and quickly grew to more than 200.

"Unfortunately, we're still hearing from people," he said. "I suspect once the media reports [the guilty plea], we'll get another wave of victims."

Weintraub said anyone who fell victim to Tollefson's scams can contact Warminster police at 215-443-5000.