West Side Roots

Courtright was born December 1, 1957, a Scranton native who spent his entire life on the city’s west side. He and his wife Kim raised three children: William Jr., Patrick, and Lindsey. For three decades, he owned and operated Summit Karate Club on South Main Avenue in West Scranton, building a reputation as a local business owner before entering politics.

Political Rise

Courtright won his first election to Scranton City Council in 2001 and served six years on the body, winning re-election in 2007. In 2006, he made an unsuccessful run for the state legislature. He pivoted in 2009 to run for city tax collector, winning that race and serving a four-year term from 2010 to 2013.

The tax collector position gave Courtright citywide name recognition and administrative experience. On November 5, 2013, he parlayed that visibility into a mayoral campaign, defeating Republican Jim Mulligan with 55 percent of the vote. He took office in January 2014.

First Term as Mayor

Courtright entered office promising to focus on downtown development and improved city services. He won re-election on November 7, 2017, again defeating Mulligan, though by a narrower margin of 52 to 48 percent. Voters gave him a second four-year term, unaware that federal investigators had already begun documenting his corruption.

The Pay-to-Play Scheme

The corruption began almost immediately after Courtright took office in early 2014. According to federal prosecutors, he used his position to shake down vendors, developers, and companies seeking to do business with the city. He tied official contracting decisions directly to the amounts of money that vendors paid him.

The scheme worked through multiple channels. Unnamed intermediaries – fewer than five people – delivered cash payoffs directly to Courtright and checks to his campaign committee, the Friends of Bill Courtright. At times, Courtright stuffed thousands of dollars of bribes directly into his pockets.

The most documented arrangement involved Northeast Revenue Service, a private company that held a contract to collect Scranton’s delinquent taxes and garbage fees. The company’s president paid Courtright $30,000 over four years, from 2013 to 2017, in exchange for keeping the city contract. Meanwhile, Scranton taxpayers paid $2.9 million in fees to the company. Federal prosecutors noted the city had received a competing proposal that would have saved $1.8 million over the same period, but Courtright ensured Northeast Revenue kept the business.

In one documented instance, Courtright directed a city employee to issue a license to an unqualified person and suggested the required reference letters could be forged. The license recipient later paid Courtright for this assistance.

The FBI Investigation

Federal investigators began a multi-year undercover operation in 2017, eventually capturing the mayor on tape accepting cash payments from vendors. Some of the money came from FBI cooperators using marked bills.

On January 9, 2019, FBI agents raided both Courtright’s home and Scranton City Hall. In a basement safe, investigators recovered $29,000 in cash, including the marked bills from their cooperators. The discovery of the FBI’s money in his safe was damning evidence that bribes had been accepted.

In the months following the raid, Courtright’s attorney Paul Walker issued a statement denying wrongdoing, claiming the mayor had “fully cooperated in the investigation” and was “confident that when the investigation is complete he will be exonerated.” That confidence proved misplaced.

The Middleman

Edward Weidow, a 65-year-old associate of Courtright, served as a key intermediary in the scheme. Federal prosecutors documented that Weidow handled three separate transactions totaling $9,000. When FBI agents questioned him after the January raid, Weidow lied to investigators about his involvement.

On July 23, 2019, three weeks after Courtright’s own guilty plea, Weidow pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to the FBI. He faced up to five years in prison for his role.

Guilty Plea and Resignation

On July 2, 2019, Courtright appeared before a federal judge in Williamsport and pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy, bribery, and extortion. That same day, he resigned as mayor, ending his tenure 18 months into his second term.

Addressing the court later, Courtright offered no clear explanation for his actions. “As hard as I try, I can’t give you an answer why I did what I did,” he said. “I should have known better. I betrayed the residents of Scranton.”

Sentencing

On October 2, 2020, U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced the 63-year-old Courtright to seven years in federal prison. The sentencing guidelines had called for a term up to 30 and a half years; federal prosecutors had sought eight to ten years.

In addition to prison time, the judge ordered Courtright to pay a $25,300 fine, serve three years of supervised release, and complete 250 hours of community service in Scranton after his release. He was ordered to surrender by October 30, 2020.

Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, issued a statement after sentencing that captured the scope of Courtright’s betrayal: “Instead of working honestly on behalf of his constituents, William Courtright traded on his office, embracing a corrupt pay-to-play culture. With every bribe pocketed and favor accepted, he sold out the city of Scranton a little more.”

Courtright’s defense attorney Paul Walker, in a moment of regional self-reflection, acknowledged that his client’s case fit a troubling pattern. He referenced former Lackawanna County Commissioners Robert Cordaro and A.J. Munchak, who had been convicted of corruption in earlier years, suggesting the area had become “the laughing stock of Pennsylvania.”

Imprisonment and Release

Courtright reported to the federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia, shortly after his October 2020 sentencing. He served approximately four years before being transferred in August 2024 to home confinement under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ residential re-entry program in Philadelphia.

His scheduled release date was October 15, 2025, less than half of his original seven-year sentence served behind bars.

Aftermath

Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, a Democrat and former congressional aide, won a special election in November 2019 to complete Courtright’s unexpired term. She was subsequently elected to a full term in 2021, tasked with rebuilding public trust in an office Courtright had thoroughly corrupted.

The federal investigation into Scranton city government that ensnared Courtright was described by U.S. Attorney David Freed as “extensive and ongoing” at the time of the mayor’s guilty plea. The probe extended beyond Courtright’s individual activities to examine broader patterns of corruption in city contracting.