The corruption case against former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed will head to trial.
A judge made the decision Tuesday to uphold all 485 criminal counts against him, which include bribery, theft and receiving stolen property.
Reed spoke out shortly after the judge ruled that there was evidence to move forward with a trial.
“As I reviewed all of the stuff, heard what I heard yesterday and today, I have one word to describe it; it’s bizarre,” Reed said. “There are so many things, so many missed characterizations, so many misrepresentations, so many untrue things that it flabbergasts me"
During the preliminary hearing which began on Monday, prosecutors argued that Reed used millions of taxpayer dollars for personal use.
They say he purchased thousands of artifacts with public money to put in multiple museums which never happened.
Attorneys for Reed, however, say he did not steal the artifacts but instead bought many of them with his own money.
“We’re confident that a jury, when they hear this, will realize that Mr. Reed did not personally benefit from this,” said Henry Hockeimer Jr., Reed’s Attorney. “Mr. Reed gave his heart, as I said, to his role as mayor of this city. His life was devoted to it and there was no intent ever to commit any kind of crime.”
Hockeimer says they have filed several Right-To-Know requests through the City of Harrisburg, but have not yet received any of those documents.
"For some reason they've been stonewalling us and you can draw your own conclusion as to why that is,” he said. “But once we get the discovery, once we get the right-to-know documents, we'll be able to tell a more complete story here."
Through it all, Reed maintains he’s done nothing wrong.
"I've been around politicians and politics most of my life and I believe very strongly that all of this started in a reverse order,” he said. “That a conclusion was made to go after Reed and then send people out to find something to throw in there to accomplish that conclusion and that's not the way the system is supposed to work."
Following the judge’s ruling Tuesday, attorneys with the State left the courthouse before making a comment.
At this time, no word on when Reed is due back in court.