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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Did Supreme Court Justice-elect use tax dollars to campaign?
Joan Orie-Melvin was elected to the Pa. Supreme Court

Attorney General Tom Corbett isn't the only one investigating pols for corruption in Pennsylvania. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala has opened a grand jury investigation into Supreme Court Justice-elect Joan Orie-Melvin.

Orie-Melvin is the sister of Senate Majority Whip Jane Orie. Zappala's investigation centers around her alleged use of state offices for campaign work. An intern apparently tipped prosecutors off.

The day before the election, an intern from the University of Pittsburgh working at Orie's McCandless office went to Zappala's office to allege campaign work occurred there for Melvin. Authorities haven't released the intern's identity or the exact nature of the allegations. But agents for Zappala and state police raided Orie's office Dec. 11 and seized computer hard drives. They have questioned Orie's chief of staff.

Orie co-chaired her sister's campaign, according to a September fundraising letter the Tribune-Review obtained. Orie signed the letter seeking donations to Melvin's campaign, and included her title as majority whip.

The Orie camp is denying all charges and attributing the investigation to partisan politics.

In terms of directed activity, it's nonexistent," said her attorney, Jerry McDevitt. "That's just not going to be found. We believe this is a politically inspired investigation."

We'll keep you posted on all the latest developments. For more, please check out our special section on reform in Harrisburg.

Review city services on our sister site, City Howl.
Posted by Ben Waxman @ 11:06 AM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:30 PM, 12/30/2009
    Electing judges? Proven again and again to be a terrible idea.
    — justabit outside
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:38 PM, 01/06/2010
    Both the judge and the senator need to resign immediately. If they are going to break the law as a major inventigation is on going, it shows that they are and will remain criminals. The judge should take a lie detector test to see if she knew about the criminal activity. These are the type of scum we depend on for justice?????
    — MikeP


2 comments
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