PITTSBURGH — Opening statements are set for Thursday in the public corruption trial of state Sen. Jane Orie, R-40th.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Orie and her sister, Janine, picked 12 jurors and four alternates Tuesday after interviewing 56 potential jurors. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.

Sen. Orie, 49, is charged with theft of services, conflict of interest and other crimes for allegedly using her taxpayer-funded staff to do campaign and fundraising work for herself and a third sister, Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, over the last decade.

Janine Orie, 56, has been suspended from her $67,000-a-year job as Melvin's aide since prosecutors charged her last year with conspiring with the senator, saying Janine Orie had the clout to order the lawmaker's staff to do work on Melvin's successful 2009 Supreme Court campaign.

Janine Orie is not charged with aiding Melvin's unsuccessful campaign in 2003, though Orie is alleged to have used her legislative staff to help Melvin in that race, too.

It was thought that pretrial publicity might make jury selection difficult, so much so that Assistant District Attorney Law Claus had asked Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning to select jurors from outside the county.

Manning refused, rejecting Claus' contention that the Ories had tainted the potential jury pool with their highly publicized claims that Democrat District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. targeted them because the senator opposes casino gambling, an industry in which Zappala‘s family is involved.

Zappala has denied any political motive, and says he charged Orie after an intern came to his office to report the allegedly illegal work in 2009.