Nine First-Degree Felonies, Six Months Served: Inside the Farley Plea Deal

HONESDALE, WAYNE COUNTY — Michael Farley faced nine first-degree felonies across five criminal cases. Under Pennsylvania sentencing law, he was exposed to 180 years in prison.

He pleaded to one misdemeanor and some disorderly conducts. Sentenced December 12. Paroled December 16.

Farley spent 20 years as a criminal defense attorney in Wayne County. He knew the courthouse. The courthouse knew him.

Every judge in the county recused. The District Attorney’s office — led by a man who once worked alongside those same judges, whose family has practiced law in Honesdale for three generations — did not.

The gap

Look at the charges. Look at the outcome.

Charged: Four counts aggravated assault (two F1, two F2) for beating an employee with a wrench. Pled to: Misdemeanor reckless endangerment.

Charged: Four F1 witness intimidation counts for trying to bribe two people into silence. Pled to: Disorderly conduct.

Charged: F1 money laundering plus theft and fraud for selling mortgaged property. Pled to: Disorderly conduct.

Charged: 71 counts including two F1 aggravated assaults for shooting his girlfriend with a paintball gun. Pled to: Three summary offenses.

Total time served: roughly six months. He’s on probation now. Owes $10,000 restitution and some fines.

Who’s who

District Attorney A.G. Howell won election in 2019 and took office January 2020. Third-generation Honesdale attorney. Before becoming DA, he spent four years as an assistant prosecutor — working under Janine Edwards, now Wayne County’s president judge.

Howell still runs a private practice alongside the elected gig: Howell, Howell & Krause, on Main Street.

Wayne County’s legal world is small. Five prosecutors serving 50,000 people. One courthouse. Everybody knows everybody. The defense attorney who beat you in court last month is the same guy you’ll see at the bar association dinner next week.

That’s how small counties work. It’s efficient. It’s personal. It can also get complicated when one of your own ends up in handcuffs.

Why judges step aside

When Farley’s cases hit the docket, both Wayne County judges — President Judge Janine Edwards and Judge Raymond Hamill — recused themselves.

That’s standard. The Pennsylvania Code of Judicial Conduct requires disqualification when a judge’s “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” An attorney who’s appeared before you dozens of times, whose office is down the street from yours, who you’ve shared committee work with for years — you step aside.

An out-of-county judge came in to handle the case. The system worked the way it’s supposed to.

But prosecutors don’t face the same automatic requirement. They can choose to recuse, handing a case to the Attorney General’s office or a neighboring DA. Or they can keep it.

Howell’s office kept it.

What the victims got

Stephen Chicoski and Lisa Perkowski refused Farley’s bribes. They cooperated with investigators. They were willing to testify.

Their reward: watching the man who allegedly attacked one of them with a wrench, who allegedly tried to buy their silence with cash and cars, plead to disorderly conduct.

Pennsylvania law gives crime victims the right to input before plea agreements are finalized. Whether Chicoski and Perkowski got that chance isn’t clear from the record.

What is clear: the witness intimidation charges — built on their cooperation — evaporated into a third-degree misdemeanor.

The question nobody’s answering

Plea deals happen. Most criminal cases end in negotiated agreements, not trials. Prosecutors weigh evidence strength, court resources, victim input, defendant cooperation.

But this one is hard to explain by the usual math.

Farley wasn’t a first-time offender who made a single mistake. He allegedly committed crimes over a two-year span. Beat an employee. Tried to buy off witnesses. Violated a protection order and served time for it. Sold property he didn’t own free and clear. Shot his girlfriend dozens of times with a paintball gun.

Each time, he caught new charges. Each time, the pile grew. By the end, nine first-degree felonies.

And the system he’d spent his career inside gave him misdemeanors.

Maybe there’s an explanation. Maybe the evidence was weaker than the charges suggested. Maybe witnesses had credibility problems. Maybe the victims wanted closure more than punishment.

Nobody’s saying.

Case Numbers: CP-64-CR-0000362-2023, CP-64-CR-0000254-2025, CP-64-CR-0000253-2025, CP-64-CR-0000200-2025, CP-64-MD-0000029-2024

Court records are public documents. All sentencing comparisons drawn from Wayne County District Attorney press releases.