More than 10 years after attorney Nicholas Panarella Jr. pleaded guilty to assisting former state Sen. F. Joseph Loeper in a fraud scheme, a federal judge has vacated Panarella’s conviction because of a recent decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that shows the conduct he confessed to was never a crime.
Although Panarella finished serving his sentence several years ago, U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin found that he deserves to have the stain of the conviction lifted because it continues to make it harder for him to find work or to win reinstatement of his license to practice law.
