Orie's attorney challenges law
PITTSBURGH — The attorney representing state Sen. Jane Orie filed a motion Monday to have all charges against his client dropped.
William Costopoulos, a high-profile lawyer from the Harrisburg area, based his motion on the "vagueness" of a conflict of interest statute that is the basis of the charges against Orie, R-40th.
The charges brought by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. two weeks ago allege Orie and her sister used state resources, mainly members of Orie's state-paid staff, to help in the election campaign of a third sister, Joan Orie Melvin, who ran a successful campaign for the state Supreme Court last year.
Costopoulos filed a similar motion in Harrisburg for another client, state Rep. Bill DeWeese, who also is facing charges of using public resources for private campaigns.
Orie is charged with theft of services, criminal conspiracy, tampering with evidence and violating the state's public officials' ethics act. Zappala alleged the Orie sisters participated in illegal uses of state resources for eight years and used state employees to campaign for other politicians besides Justice Orie Melvin.
In nearly identical motions filed for Orie and DeWeese, Costopoulos argued Pennsylvania's conflict-of-interest law should not be used to prosecute lawmakers for behavior that he said is engaged in by nearly every member of the General Assembly.
"The basis for the motion to dismiss the charges is the vagueness of the law because, when you read it, there's no way of ascertaining what you can and cannot do within the law, which is the whole purpose of a criminal statute," Costopoulos said. "The way it's drafted gives the prosecution unfettered discretion to arbitrarily decide who's going to get charged with what and when."
When asked to respond to a previous statement made by Orie's brother and former attorney Jack Orie that almost every politician across the state unknowingly mixes legislative and electoral duties, Costopoulos said he agreed with the statement.
He noted the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this year on the legality of a similar federal law, the honest services fraud law, which also has come under attack for vagueness.
"We are expecting a ruling ... that this kind of broad, sweeping language violates state and federal due process, because it gives prosecutors unfettered discretion about who to charge, when, and what to charge them with," Costopoulos said.
Costopoulos said he'll be in Pittsburgh May 4 to argue in front of Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning, who will decide whether to dismiss the charges. The hearing starts at 1:30 p.m.
On Monday, a Ross Township commissioner announced he is waging a write-in campaign for the Democratic nomination in the May 18 primary. Dan DeMarco, an attorney and a commissioner in the northern Allegheny County township for 11 years, will need 500 write-in votes to get on the ballot to face Orie in November's election.
DeMarco ran unsuccessfully against Orie in 2002.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
