Feb. 17—SCRANTON — His eyes widened by news he will spend six years behind bars for bribery, James J. Peperno Jr. hurried from the city's federal courthouse to begin his last three weeks outside prison walls.

"I should have just walked away," Peperno said.

U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion ordered Peperno, 58, to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. March 10 to begin serving a 72-month sentence for crimes committed during a public corruption investigation. The judge allowed him three weeks so he could set his affairs in order, including arranging his 80-year-old mother's care.

After he's released, Peperno will be under supervision for three years.

The prison sentence came five months after a jury convicted him of bribery and related offenses following a nine-day trial. Peperno acted as a middleman between former borough council President Robert Semenza and scrap yard owner Walter Stocki during a 2019 bribery scheme aimed at assisting Stocki with costly zoning litigation brought by the borough.

As Peperno left the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Friday, he maintained his intent centered on helping Stocki clean up his North Keyser Avenue scrap yard, an issue central to the civil litigation which accrued fees daily.

At trial, Peperno sought to defend himself by presenting his activities as those of a legitimate consultant. On Friday, after he was sentenced, Peperno said he erred in the manner in which he pursued payment. It echoed his statement in court moments earlier: though his actions were "terrible," his "intent was good."

"I hope you don't believe that," Mannion told Peperno. "Because it is completely untrue."

Jurors found Stocki made payments to Semenza in 2019, both directly to the council president and indirectly through Peperno, to influence the litigation against Stocki's business. Investigators said Stocki paid $10,000 to Semenza and $6,000 to Peperno, who gave $500 to Semenza.

Stocki, however, had been assisting the FBI. The $6,000 he passed to Peperno in four exchanges in the fall of 2019 were serialized bills provided to Stocki by the FBI.

Semenza, 49, pleaded guilty to bribery and resigned from borough council in May 2021. Once caught, he cooperated with the investigation and testified against Peperno at trial. Semenza had been in the grip of a cocaine addiction at the time he took bribes. He's been sober for more than two years.

Mannion sentenced Semenza to a year and a day in prison. Semenza is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution/Schuylkill.

Semenza came clean and told the truth, Mannion said, while Peperno has repeatedly perjured himself.

This is not the first time Peperno has faced federal charges. In 2007, Peperno pleaded guilty to mail fraud for running a Ponzi scheme prosecutors said bilked victims out of nearly $2 million. He was later sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $700,000 in restitution.

Peperno was released early in August 2011 and ordered to find a job to pay the remaining balance of $407,891 in $300 monthly installments.

In September, jurors found Peperno guilty of perjury for lying under oath about his finances amid efforts aimed at determining if he could pay the balance. His online gambling activity shows he made 245 deposits into a sports betting account between 2019 and 2020, amounting to $18,000, prosecutors said in court documents.

In the courtroom gallery, Brenda Buntz's face hardened at talk of the money Peperno spent on gambling. She lost more than $500,000 in his scheme, she has said. Repayment came in small amounts, if at all.

Speaking from a prepared statement Friday, Buntz urged Mannion to "retire" Peperno from his criminal career.

"I just want it over," she said, shaking, as she sat back down.

After the hearing, she said "justice is served" by Mannion's sentence.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.