HARRISBURG — Former Rep. Sean Ramaley was an aspiring legislator who "did what he was told to do" as a part-time assistant to House Democratic Whip Mike Veon in 2004, Ramaley's lawyer told jurors Friday as testimony opened in the first trial in Pennsylvania's legislative corruption scandal.

Attorney Philip Ignelzi said Ramaley had been required by law to quit his previous job as a clerk for an administrative judge in the U.S. Labor Department when he decided to run for the House. Ramaley was eager to learn the legislative ropes and viewed the $2,500-a-month job with Veon as "an opportunity," he said.

"Nobody was slighted," Ignelzi told the six men and six women on the jury. "Your taxes weren't taken from you."

Ramaley ran his legislative campaign out of an office in the basement of a house he owns and, later, at a campaign headquarters shared with other Democratic candidates, Ignelzi said.

"He won with hard work, determination and support," the lawyer said.

Prosecutor Anthony Krastek said he will prove Ramaley, a Beaver County resident who had graduated from law school two years earlier, conspired with Veon to obtain a no-work job in Veon's Beaver Falls office to provide him a source of income while he concentrated full-time on winning the election.

Krastek, a senior deputy attorney general, said the fact that Ramaley was assigned to an office separate from the more public area where other legislative assistants sat was an indication of his special status.

"He was down the hall, around the corner, in a back office," Krastek said.

Ramaley began the job in July 2004 and resigned five months later, after he was elected. He is one of 12 people connected to the House Democratic caucus who have been charged by the state attorney general's office.

He is charged with four counts of theft, one count of conflict of interest and one count of conspiracy involving taxpayer money and other public resources.