"It was a while. It was eight years, five months to the day that I was in prison."
Bob Cordaro jokes that for the first time since he's a teenager, he's back in his parent's house.
The former two-term county commissioner, now 59 years old, is on home confinement until at least July of 2021.
After eight and a half years and stops in 11 different federal prisons, it's a welcome change.
"What's a day like in prison? It's a battle against monotony," said Cordaro.
Cordaro spent a good deal of his time behind bars, appealing the convictions that sent him there.
He claimed his trial lawyer was ineffective.
He claimed to have subsequently found evidence that exonerates him.
The courts turned him down every time.
"We took cash campaign contributions, and they turned that into bribes. The amounts were exaggerated. Grossly exaggerated... and they put together a case," said Cordaro.
"They," according to Cordaro, is the federal government, which targeted him for reasons that are unclear.
The evidence presented against him in court was damaging.
In his trial, Cordaro claimed the large cash expenditures in his personal life were the result of a new financial strategy that did not include buying anything on credit.
Prosecutors claimed it was simply a crooked politician spending his illicit gains.
His legal journey, Cordaro says, was a frustrating process but fighting the conviction was something he had to do.
"They'll say, oh, he's just guilty. for them, I say I served my time. But for those who will take the time to look or would have an open mind, I think I could have proven to you if you read everything and followed how complex it was, that I wasn't guilty," said Cordaro.
“We brought the county back on a financial path, after it was really insolvent,” said Cordaro.
Cordaro had high hopes when he and running mate A.J. Munchak won an upset victory in the 2003 election for Lackawanna County Commissioner.
Just hours after the final votes were counted, there they were on Newswatch 16 that morning celebrating their historic win.
“We won because of you!” said Cordaro.
Cordaro says he and Munchak deserve credit for getting the county out of money-losing operations like the ski resort on Montage Mountain and the baseball team that plays just down the hill.
When the Phillies pulled the Red Barons out of town, Cordaro helped lure the New York Yankees here.
Today, the minor league Railriders play in a newly refurbished ballpark, but Cordaro says the original agreement included so much more.
“The Yankee museum, the Yankee hotel, the arcade, the stores, the development all around Montage and Lackawanna county. We lost all that, and I don't know why,” said Cordaro.
Cordaro’s big dreams weren't just limited to development around the ballpark.
He also envisioned Lackawanna County as a hub for filmmakers.
To get that ball rolling, he invested a half-million dollars of county money in a little independent film called “The Trouble with Cali.”
“If you recall with that, the criticism from our opponents and the FBI investigation tainted the opportunity to finish the movie properly, and I think at some point Paul Sorvino threw up his hands,” said Cordaro.
Actor Paul Sorvino was the driving force behind the small independent film.
Cordaro says he envisioned “The Trouble with Cali,” showing Hollywood and New York that Lackawanna County was a viable and cost-effective setting for filmmakers.
He says he had state funding in place for a film studio.
"Not because it was necessarily going to be a great picture or that it was going to be an Academy Award or ever to do well at the box office. But to show that this area could support the film industry,” said Cordaro.
However, it took Sorvino five years to finish “The Trouble with Cali,” and the first reviews were so bad it never received a distribution deal.
The county lost its investment.
By then, Cordaro was in prison.
Now he’s home - home confinement, to be specific.
He says - even after everything he's been through, there's nowhere else he'd rather be.
"People would say, 'Why would you want to go back there'? Well, because the people are just the best, and that's proven to be true,” said Cordaro.
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