PITTSBURGH — Former state lawmaker Frank LaGrotta said in a Pittsburgh newspaper his unpublished memoirs will show he wasn't guilty of conflict-of-interest charges.

LaGrotta, a Beaver County Democrat who represented parts of Butler County, was sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty in February 2008 to placing his sister and her daughter in state jobs that paid them for little or no work.

LaGrotta said he did nothing illegal and pleaded guilty only to protect his sister and niece from what he says was a politically motivated prosecution.

Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett, said LaGrotta admitted his crimes in court and "either he was lying then or he was lying now."