PITTSBURGH — State Sen. Jane Orie, R-40th, took the stand this afternoon in her own defense in her theft of services trial.

She started testifying about 1:30 p.m., going over her career. She also discussed documents that she said showed that she told her staff not to do campaign work on state-paid time.

Orie, a Republican whose district includes Cranberry Township and 16 other southern Butler county communities, is charged with felonies ranging from theft of services from the state to criminal conspiracy.

Prosecutors allege she directed her state-paid staff to work on nonlegislative activities, which is illegal because staffers are forbidden from engaging in such activity while being paid by the state.

The senator and her sister, Janine Orie, who is suspended from her job as Justice Joan Orie Melvin’s aide, are charged with illegally using the senator’s state-funded staff to work on Melvin’s 2009 election to the state’s highest court.

Melvin is not charged. But Jane Orie, alone, is also charged with using her staff to do campaign and fundraising work for herself since she took office in 2001, and on Melvin’s failed bid for the Supreme Court in 2003.

Her trial continues Tuesday.