It's a familiar stage play on the 6 o'clock news. A defendant in handcuffs. A scrum of reporters reaching out with microphones. The thrrp-thrrp of cameras. The whole scene bathed in white TV light.

Yesterday, it was John M. Perzel's turn to endure the "perp walk."

For as long as anyone can remember, cameras have been waiting at the courthouse door for the politician or celebrity who gets himself in trouble. There are images of Prohibition-era gangsters in fedoras waltzing on the arms of cops.

But in this age of instant and pervasive media, the routine has become ever more humiliating - and, in the view of defense attorneys, ever more damaging to the presumption of innocence.

Perzel, 59, once among the most powerful figures in Harrisburg, joined the likes of bank robbers, bad-girl Hollywood starlets, and Wall Street scoundrels by being paraded in front of the news media on the way to his arraignment.

Lawyers for Perzel and some of the nine other defendants who surrendered yesterday in the Bonusgate prosecution said the handcuffs, especially, were meant to tar their clients.

"Totally unnecessary," said Brian McMonagle, representing Perzel. "None of these men were flight risks. Every one of these men was prepared to go to the district justice today."

Joshua Lock, lawyer for former State Rep. Brett Feese, called it "medieval cruelty." Lock said the state was using "arrest procedures last seen during the French Revolution."

Kevin Harley, spokesman for state Attorney General Tom Corbett, defended the procedure.

Instead of being arrested at their homes or offices, he said, defendants were "given the courtesy of surrendering themselves" at the Lower Paxton Township Police Department near Harrisburg.

This was the morning after Corbett held a televised news conference to announce charges against the 10 Republicans in connection with the alleged use of $10 million in tax dollars for political purposes, mostly to assemble voter data bases.

The defendants were fingerprinted and photographed at the police station, then handcuffed, then placed in cars, then driven to the courtroom of District Judge William Wenner in Linglestown.

It was there that they ran into a waiting host of news people.

In a blue suit and red tie, Perzel walked a bit awkwardly with his hands in front of him, held closely together by steel rings. Though he looked mortified, the legendarily tough political figure kept his composure.

"This thing has been going on for quite some time," he said of the investigation as he walked. "There's hundreds of allegations that have been made. I'm looking for an opportunity to prove I'm innocent in court."

Harley said handcuffs are standard procedure for prisoners being transported by agents of the Attorney General's Office.

"We treated these defendants as we would treat any other defendant, including drug dealers," he said. "They do not get any special treatment because they are politicians."

A lawyer not involved in the case said he, too, doubted the need to handcuff prisoners who voluntarily surrender and aren't charged with violence. "It's outrageous, and the attorney general knows it," said Dennis J. Cogan, lead attorney for former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, now serving 55 months in jail on corruption charges.

Cogan said Corbett, a Republican candidate for governor, needed to answer, "What was the concern - that the person was going to escape after he surrendered? Do you think he was dangerous? ... It was silly, and it was mean-spirited."

Fumo, as a defendant in Philadelphia federal court, was not seen in handcuffs when he was arrested. His processing and appearance before a judge were all in the same building.

Federal courts have ruled that "perp walks" - a recent shorthand made popular on TV and in movies - are permitted under the Bill of Rights if they are done for legitimate police purposes.

They can't be done just to shame defendants, one court ruled. In 2000, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took up a case from New York in which a doorman had been videotaped rifling through tenants' possessions.

A Fox station asked police to walk the doorman to a car after he was arrested, so it could get footage of him. The police did so. They drove the man around the block and took him back inside.

This violated the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the court said.

Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum said the Perzel "perp walk" seemed to meet court requirements. But he said such pretrial publicity can make it more difficult for defense lawyers to find unbiased jurors when a case comes to trial.

It didn't help, Ohlbaum said, that Corbett gave his version of the grand jury's findings in a televised news conference on Thursday.

"I suppose one could make the argument that in certain circumstances, it advantages the prosecution, because it begins to taint or pollute a potential jury pool," he said.

Andy Hoover of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union commented: "Certainly defendants are innocent until proven guilty; in this media age, it is increasingly difficult for us to maintain that presumption."

Contact staff writer Tom Infield at 610-313-8205 or tinfield@phillynews.com.