Isadore H. Bellis
He was defeated for a fourth term and retired to Florida, where he continued to appeal his convictions, never actually serving a day of his two-to-seven-year sentence.
[7] After high school, Bellis attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was captain of the tennis team and continued to have success in the sport.
[11][12] With World War II raging, Bellis was drafted into the United States Army in August 1944, but was home again by December.
[11] In 1956, he and Herbert F. Kolsby formed their own law firm, where his clients included the local branch of the Fraternal Order of Police.
[21] In the early 1960s, Bellis joined a group of investors who formed a syndicate led by Barnard L. Sackett to distribute foreign films in the United States.
[24][25] Bellis's campaign had focused on the problem of slumlords, and in Council the next year he introduced a bill to increase the penalties for violations of the housing code.
[26] He also was a member of a City Council committee investigating and incident when a black police captain died after being refused admission to Philadelphia General Hospital in 1966.
[32] In the session of City Council that began in 1968, Bellis was named Democratic whip and chairman of the Law and Government Committee.
In 1969, Bellis testified before a grand jury investigating urban development corruption in the city, but was not charged with any crime.
[15] One issue concerned an incident in which Bellis introduced a zoning variance in council for a planned restaurant in David Cohen's district, a breach of councilmanic prerogative that led to a fierce feud between the two Democrats.
[38] Cohen publicly alleged that Michael Grasso, a McDonald's franchisee, had bribed Bellis and Councilman William Cibotti to bring about the change in zoning.
[41] After the election, he challenged George X. Schwartz for the job of President of City Council, but was outvoted and forced to be content with the position of majority leader.
[42] A grand jury recommended his indictment for bribery in securing a no-bid contract for a concession at Philadelphia International Airport for ARA Services (a division of Aramark), accusing him of the "pursuit of private financial gain at the public expense.
[47][48] After a federal grand jury also began investigating the corruption, Belllis refused to surrender financial records from his former law firm, leading to contempt charges that he fought all the way to the Supreme Court.
[52] In November of that year, he stood trial in U.S. District Court for the federal tax evasion charges, but was found not guilty.
The city Democratic organization backed his primary challenger, Louis Johanson, an attorney and protégé of former Mayor James Tate.
[54] On April 25, Bellis was found guilty of bribery, misconduct in office, and election law violations in Common Pleas Court, after which he took a leave of absence from City Council.
[65] The following year, Philadelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell dropped the charges rather than retry Bellis, noting that the length of time since the underlying offense and the death of a key witness would make it nearly impossible to convict.
