John Karoly Jr., 60, made millions from police-abuse cases.
He could face a long prison term when he is sentenced for tax evasion and charity fraud in Philadelphia federal court.
Karoly would get a 10-year term if prosecutors get their way. His sentencing hearing began today and resumes tomorrow.
His attorney argues that losing his law license and damaging his reputation are punishment enough.
Karoly is well known in the Lehigh Valley for winning more than $10 million in settlements in police brutality and related cases, and a mostly supportive overflow crowd filled the courtroom for his sentencing.
He has spent recent years fighting both the criminal case and a bitter dispute among his siblings that followed the 2007 plane-crash deaths of his wealthy brother and sister-in-law.
Two sisters charge in a civil suit that Karoly had been cut out of their estate but dummied up fake wills after the crash.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel ruled Wednesday that Karoly evaded $1.5 million in taxes on about $4.2 million in unreported income.
The judge later heard from a retired boxer, a disabled woman and a former youth athlete mentored by the attorney, each of whom spoke about Karoly's good deeds.
"I'm overwhelmed by the amount of support that showed up today, and very grateful," Karoly said outside the courthouse.
Karoly pleaded guilty to the tax charges in a deal in which prosecutors dropped criminal charges against him, son John P. Karoly III and a family friend over the alleged fake wills. Defense lawyer Robert E. Goldman calls the will fight a family dispute.
Karoly went to trial, though, on fraud and money-laundering charges related to a $500,000 tax-deductible donation he made to the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation. Karoly steered the money to his church, which then forwarded most of it back to him through a charity he set up.
Karoly admitted on the stand that he used the funds to pay employees at his law firm, and for clothing, pet care and catering costs for his brother's funeral.
Stengel convicted him of the charges.
Karoly has said he hoped his nascent wilderness foundation could offer disadvantaged Allentown youth some recreational opportunities, perhaps through a camp in the Poconos.
But prosecutors allege Karoly bought the Poconos land for a retirement home, not a youth retreat.
"John Karoly Jr. used his legal training to strong-arm and defraud his own church and pastor, to steal from his own sisters, to manipulate a charitable organization, to shun his obligation to pay taxes, to create fabricated legal documents, and to obstruct justice," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin R. Brenner wrote.
"His insatiable appetite for money and material things knows no bounds."
In his 35-year career, Karoly has represented two FBI agents from the office that later investigated him, the widow of a police officer fatally shot by another officer inside the Easton Police Department and a 21-year-old Bethlehem man who was shot 11 times and had his house burned down during a botched 1997 drug raid.
Goldman, in a defense memo, asked for a below-guideline sentence because of what he called Karoly's distinguished legal career and extensive community service.
"He championed the unpopular causes and had the temerity to hold law enforcement accountable for unconstitutional acts," Goldman wrote.
