Supreme Court ruling to get Philadelphia Council aide, 2 others out of jail

Convicted in February 2009, three men - the former chief of staff to City Councilman Jack Kelly, the councilman's ex-campaign treasurer, and one of Kelly's big campaign contributors - are about to find themselves in the most unusual of positions.

All three in the next few days are expected to be set free on bail months after they were sentenced and months before their scheduled release dates.

According to an attorney for one of the three men, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted bail for all three late Friday and they are expected to be released early next week.

Their temporary freedom - pending an appeal on the convictions - comes courtesy of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last month that weakened a law used to help convict them.

In a case involving former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling, the high court ruled that the so-called honest-services fraud law must include clear-cut evidence of bribes or kickbacks.

It is not enough, the court said, to prove only conflicts of interest or unethical dealings, which had been used by federal prosecutors as the basis of many successful public prosecution cases.

Among them were the cases involving Christopher Wright, who was Kelly's chief of staff; Andrew Teitelman, Kelly's campaign treasurer; and Ravinder Chawla, a Kelly campaign contributor.

Wright, a 20-year government worker, was sentenced last August to four years in prison for accepting favors from businessmen while promoting their interests in City Hall. Specifically, he accepted a rent-free apartment from Chawla, a developer, and free legal services from Teitelman, Chawla's lawyer.

Chawla, 60, received a 21/2-year sentence in September. Teitelman, 51, was given a 24-month term in late September.

Lawyers say much of the evidence used to convict all three was based on the now-unconstitutional portion of the "honest services" fraud law, throwing into question the criminal counts at the core of their cases.

"The remedy at a minimum is, they have to get a new trial because you can't tell on what basis the jury convicted them," William DeStefano, Teitelman's lawyer, said.

Consequently, with appeals pending, the lawyers for each of the three men jointly asked the Third Circuit Court this week to allow them out of jail on bail.

Government prosecutors did not object in a motion filed Thursday. In their motion, prosecutors recommended bail be set at $10,000 for Wright, $200,000 for Chawla, and $100,000 for Teitelman.

"I'm glad the government didn't take a hard-line position," DeStefano said Friday, adding he believed the trio would be released Monday or Tuesday. Teitelman and Chawla, who are defendants in a related civil case, are housed at the Federal Detention Center in Center City. Wright is in a federal facility in Lewisburg, Pa.

Lisa Mathewson, Wright's attorney, was also pleased, saying, "The government has agreed with the defense that there is a substantial question for the Court of Appeals to consider, which is whether they are entitled to judgment of acquittal or a new trial."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Zauzmer said the fallout of the Supreme Court ruling means "we have to go back and look at each case, each count and see what was the evidence, what was the jury told.

"The answer," he continued, "may be that the verdict can be sustained." But new trials will be necessary to make that determination.

The cases involving the three men are among the early ripples emanating from the high court's decision.

On Wednesday, Conrad Black, the former owner of a company that published the Chicago Sun-Times, was released after serving two years of his 78-month sentence for fraud conviction - a conviction based on the now unconstitutional part of the honest-services law. He was freed on $2 million bond pending appeal of his case.