Justices pull law license of suspect in Bonusgate

By Mark Scolforo

Associated Press

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has pulled the law license of a defendant in a sweeping corruption probe who allegedly strong-armed legislative employees to work on House Democratic campaigns.

The court on Monday issued an order that suspended Jeff Foreman's law license and referred the matter to the board overseeing lawyer discipline.

Foreman, 58, was among the 12 people associated with the House Democratic caucus who were charged last year in the state attorney general's investigation into alleged misuse of government resources for campaigning and other improper purposes.

He has signed an agreement with prosecutors that calls for him to plead guilty to conflict of interest, conspiracy, and two counts of theft, but it has not yet been accepted by a judge. He faces 24 criminal counts.

His lawyer, Royce Morris, said Foreman agreed to what he called a "voluntary consent" to surrender the license in anticipation of future developments in his criminal case.

Morris said that Foreman had been practicing law until last week, and that his law license may one day be reinstated. The Supreme Court will ultimately decide what penalty, if any, is warranted regarding his status as a lawyer.

Foreman and 10 of the other 11 House Democratic defendants are scheduled to go to trial in January in a case where the line between state government jobs and campaign efforts will be at center stage.

At least four of them also have signed plea agreements.

"I anticipate that he will not be tried with the other defendants," Morris said. "And I anticipate that not many of those defendants will actually be engaged in the trial process."

The trial of the 12th defendant, former State Rep. Sean Ramaley (D., Beaver) is scheduled to begin in Dauphin County Court next week.

Foreman served as a high-ranking caucus lawyer, working as a top aide to codefendant Mike Veon, the former Democratic whip from Beaver County. At the time of his arrest he was working for Rep. Keith McCall (D., Carbon), currently the House speaker, but the campaign and law-practice allegations against Foreman date to the period when Veon was his supervisor.

State prosecutors recently announced another round of arrests in the wide-ranging investigation, arresting 10 people associated with the House Republican caucus.

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