Sean O’Neill testifies he lied in court to aid wife

The patriarch of a Chester County family known for its multiple brushes with the law told a federal judge Tuesday that he falsely pleaded guilty to tax fraud to save his wife from prosecution for the same crime.

Sean O'Neill, 51, now wants to withdraw that plea because he has learned it will result in his deportation to Northern Ireland once he completes an 18-month prison term on weapons, tax, and immigration charges.

His two hours of testimony concluded the second day of a hearing before U.S. District Judge William Yohn, who sentenced O'Neill in October 2009. The judge said he would hear arguments Wednesday from defense attorney Cheryl A. Sturm and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Beam Winter.

O'Neill said his attorney had told him that unless he pleaded guilty, his wife, Eileen O'Neill, would be arrested.

"Do you want to see your wife in an orange jumpsuit?" O'Neill said he was told. "Then, Sean, you're going to have to fall on your sword for Eileen."

The charges stemmed from Eileen O'Neill's operation of Maggie O'Neill's, a popular Delaware County pub the couple once owned. Prosecutors allege the couple evaded taxes with a cash payroll.

"I did not want to see my wife arrested with all that we had went through," he said, calling her "an emotional train wreck."

O'Neill also testified that none of the half-dozen attorneys he had consulted told him that pleading guilty would result in banishment from the United States.

Under cross examination, O'Neill said he had lied multiple times during his plea hearing. For example, when he was asked whether he was satisfied with his lawyer's representation, he replied "absolutely."

"I was being polite," he explained Tuesday.

"Very polite," the judge interjected.

The O'Neill family has garnered headlines since Sept. 1, 2006, when Sean O'Neill Jr., then 17, shot and killed a Cardinal O'Hara High School classmate, Scott Sheridan, during an underage drinking party at the O'Neills' Willistown Township residence.

A subsequent search of the family's 14-acre property along the Chester-Delaware County line later spawned a June 27 raid, leading to charges against the father. While he was awaiting trial, his oldest daughter, Roisin, while drunk drove the wrong way on I-476 in Plymouth Township, killing Patricia M. Waggoner, a Massachusetts grandmother.

Roisin O'Neill is serving a five-to-10-year prison sentence. Her brother returned home after completing two juvenile treatment programs.

O'Neill's youngest daughter, Fiona, who attended Tuesday's hearing with about 10 friends and relatives, left the courtroom sobbing after the proceeding ended.