Philly Businessman Pleads Guilty in Porn for Ticket-Fixing Trial

PHILADELPHIA—One of the defendants in a Philly ticket-fixing trial that AVN has covered here and here brought his part of the case to an abrupt conclusion today with a surprise guilty verdict. Henry "Eddie" Alfano, a South Philadelphia business man who in addition to owning a salvage yard, scrap business and towing yard is also the landlord for two Philadelphia strip clubs (the Oasis Gentleman's Club and Christine's Cabaret) as well as the Venus Video adult store, pleaded guilty today "to 13 federal counts of conspiracy and mail and wire fraud tied to a long-standing arrangement with then-Traffic Court Judge Fortunato Perri Sr.," reported Philly.com. For three years, from 2008 to 2011, Alfaro told U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel that he took care of Perri's needs in return for getting traffic tickets fixed. "Judge Perri was a dear and old friend," he told the court. "But what I did, asking him for consideration, was extremely wrong and illegal. And for that I am sorry." More specifically, the gifts Alfaro gave the 77-year-old Perri were in the form of seafood and porn, which would sometimes be placed surreptitiously (or so they thought) in the trunk of Perri's cars, which Alfaro also offered to fix for free (or something approximating "free"). All of this was caught in dozens of phone conversations between the two men secretly recorded by investigators looking into suspected corruption in Philadelphia's Traffic Court. According to Philly.com, "Prosecutors allege that for years Traffic Court justice ran along two tracks: one for the politically connected and another for everyone else. They say judges routinely dismissed citations or reduced fines for friends, and Perri and Alfano were two of the worst offenders." The guilty plea by Alfaro, the site added, "is the fifth in a case federal prosecutors brought last year against two businessmen and nine former judges in Philadelphia's Traffic Court. It came even as lawyers continued to select jurors for the seven remaining defendants who have opted to take their case to trial." Last month, the court issued a ruling that prohibited any mention to the jury that it was porn on the tapes Alfaro had given Perri. The explanation is that it would be "unfair" to the retired judge. Now that Alfaro has pleaded guilty, however, the specter of porn still being uttered in court is gone, and the ticket-fixing trial can continue in prurient peace.