Western Pa. scandal touches on state high court

HARRISBURG - Ronald Castille remembers getting sideways looks for years after state Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen was impeached.

The looks came at national judicial conferences, when Castille, now the court's chief justice, was recognized as hailing from Pennsylvania.

Judges from other states would ask, " 'Isn't that the state where one justice tried to run over another justice?' " Castille recalled Friday, referring to the controversy that so damaged the court's image in the 1990s. "It took a long time to shake out the taint."

Now, a burgeoning scandal involving two Western Pennsylvania political families threatens to again bring notoriety to the state's highest court.

So, on Friday, Castille took a rare step for a chief justice of that court: He spoke out about the situation.

"It's not good, I can tell you that," he said in an interview.

The controversy involves State Sen. Jane Orie, the chamber's third-ranking Republican, and allegations that she illegally used her legislative office and other state resources to help her sister, Joan Orie Melvin, win a Supreme Court seat in the fall.

On Wednesday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., a Democrat and son of a former state Supreme Court justice, filed criminal charges against the senator and another sister, Janine Orie, an aide on the court staff of Orie Melvin. The charges followed a grand-jury investigation.

Orie Melvin has not been charged and the allegations "have nothing to do with the Supreme Court," Castille said. "They involved campaigns."

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the public may not see the fine line between the court and the allegations - especially because the charges come on the heels of the "kids-for-cash" scandal in Luzerne County, where two former judges are accused of sending juvenile defendants to detention centers in return for $2.6 million in kickbacks.

As a member of the Supreme Court, Orie Melvin is one of seven justices who wield enormous power over cases that touch Pennsylvanians' everyday lives.

The first fallout from the charges against her sisters may be evident next week, when the justices hold their spring session in Pittsburgh. Of 13 cases awaiting arguments there, two involve the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office - the same prosecutors who charged Orie Melvin's sisters.

She will not hear one of those cases because she was on the state Superior Court - one rung down in the appellate system - when it ruled on the matter.

But Castille said Orie Melvin should also disqualify herself from another pending case because it involves use of evidence by Allegheny County prosecutors. "You are supposed to recuse yourself if there is an appearance of impropriety," he said. "And in a case when someone's office is prosecuting your blood relatives, it would be appropriate to recuse oneself."

Castille, a former Philadelphia district attorney, said it was up to each of the justices to decide whether to recuse themselves from a given case.

Orie Melvin did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. But her brother, Jack Orie, a lawyer serving as the family's spokesman, said she would recuse herself from that case and any others involving Zappala's office.

And, as he has before, Jack Orie accused Zappala of using his office to punish the Orie family.

"He is trying to prevent the girls from moving on politically," Jack Orie said. "They have been fighters their whole lives and they will fight this."

Jane Orie has contended that Zappala is targeting her because of her opposition to expanded legalized gambling in Pennsylvania. Zappala's father, former Justice Stephen A. Zappala, has served as an official of a group representing several Pennsylvania casinos.

In the early 1990s, then-Justice Larsen accused the elder Zappala of commandeering a car and trying to run him down outside the Four Seasons hotel in Philadelphia.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for Zappala's office, said of the latest charges, "The investigation was conducted by career investigators and career prosecutors, and, prior to these events, there was no dispute, political or otherwise, between the district attorney and any member of the Orie family."

Under state Senate rules, Jane Orie had to step down from her Republican-whip leadership post because of the charges. Janine Orie was suspended with pay from her Supreme Court job on Wednesday, a day after the charges were filed.

She earns $67,000 as chief administrative judicial assistant, a job she has held since her sister joined the high court in January.