One by one, former city of Allentown officials and others are being made to pay for their roles in an elaborate pay-for-play scandal that was intended to help the former mayor finance first his run for governor of Pennsylvania, then, when that was unsuccessful, a bid for one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats.

Of course, the poster boy for the unsavory and embarrassing set of events that started on July 2, 2015, with a raid on city hall was the mayor himself, Ed Pawlowski.

Federal Judge Juan R. Sanchez literally threw the book at Pawlowski with a 15-year jail term, which is under appeal, and a $95,000 fine, which equals the mayor’s annual salary. Some of the mayor’s underlings have received lesser sentences.

The most recent was Garret Strathearn, the city’s former finance director, who was sentenced to six months of home confinement, five years probation and a $5,000 fine.

The sentencings of Strathearn and Pawlowski are studies in contrast as to how to present one’s self at sentencing. This does make a difference in the eyes of the presiding judge.

Sanchez handled both sentencings. In Pawlowski’s case, the ex-mayor hung tough even after being convicted on 47 of 54 counts of corruption. He insisted he did nothing wrong. Because he felt he had not, he also did not feel he needed to apologize for any wrongdoing.

“No remorse, no contrition,” Sanchez said before sentencing the mayor of the state’s third-largest city. This would have been the perfect time for Pawlowski to throw himself on the mercy of the court, much as Strathearn did.

The fact that he did not prompted the judge to order Pawlowski taken to prison immediately, and the four-term mayor was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Pawlowski’s attorney Jack McMahon defended his client’s actions, saying that it would have been ridiculous for Pawlowski to apologize for something he felt that he hadn’t done. Both Pawlowski and his attorney are confident that their appeal will succeed in overturning the nearly four-dozen convictions.

Most legal observers believe that this is a long shot at best. Several criminal attorneys to whom I spoke said having 46 character witnesses for Pawlowski at sentencing was overkill and may have actually done him more harm than good. “Typically, you have four or five solid character witnesses; that plays much better with a judge than nearly four dozen,” a veteran Lehigh County criminal lawyer told me.

Contrast Pawlowski’s approach to Strathearn’s. Federal Prosecutor Michelle Morgan said, unlike Pawlowski, Strathearn was cooperative and remorseful. She said he admitted to “screwing up” and being “incredibly stupid.”

When it came time to speak for himself, Strathearn told the court that he had allowed a momentary lapse of poor judgment to cloud his better judgment. He told the judge that he was in denial about the role that he played in the scheme. “I got in the way of seeing the truth,” he said.

Strathearn, who had had a distinguished record of community service until then, called just three character witnesses, one of whom told about Strathearn’s wartime heroics in disarming a rogue U.S. soldier with a hand grenade.

Strathearn admitted that he had intervened into a bid review process that steered a city contract for collecting delinquent real estate taxes to a firm mandated by Pawlowski to help him get campaign contributions.

Former state Treasurer Rob McCord used the “mea culpa” strategy effectively during his sentencing earlier this year, too, when he called himself a “flawed man.”

McCord, who faced charges similar to those brought against Pawlowski, was sentenced to 2½ years in prison after being convicted on two counts of attempted federal extortion for trying to shake down state vendors in exchange for contributions to his ill-fated gubernatorial bid in 2014. McCord lost the Democratic primary to Gov. Tom Wolf.

The bodies continue to pile up in the Allentown scandal. More sentencings are scheduled during the next several months, including Mike Fleck, Pawlowski’s former campaign manager and fixer, who wore a wire to help the FBI snare the former mayor and others.

Fleck has been in hiding since the raid on city hall. He has not testified yet, so there is a lot of interest in what he will have to say when he is sentenced early next year.

Others either already sentenced or scheduled to be sentenced are: former Assistant City Solicitor Dale Wiles, former city Controller Mary Ellen Koval, former Managing Director Francis Dougherty, real estate developer Ramzi Haddad, former Allentown engineer Matthew McTish, business consultant James Hickey and former energy savings company Vice President Patrick Regan.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com