Prosecutors in corruption trial rest their case
HARRISBURG — A once-powerful state lawmaker told a grand jury in 2009 that he relied heavily on his district staff to perform re-election campaign duties and that he hadn’t been careful to ensure that it was done on their personal, rather than taxpayer-paid time, according to a transcript read Thursday during Rep. Bill DeWeese’s corruption trial.
DeWeese, 61, also insisted to the grand jury that he did not force employees to perform campaign work and that he went to great lengths to cooperate with state prosecutors once a scandal broke in 2007 over taxpayer-paid bonuses for state legislative employees.
Still, he also acknowledged that he hadn’t instilled “internal controls” to prevent campaign work by House Democratic staff in the Capitol or staff in his Greene County district offices.
“The internal controls that I had been lacking in the Capitol building I should have instilled in my campaign apparatus also,” he said in a transcript read by state attorney general’s office staff while the jury listened.
He told the grand jury that one of his biggest mistakes was not looking carefully at his employees’ leave slips to ensure that they were performing campaign tasks, such as knocking on doors with him, on personal time.
While DeWeese suggested that he was aware of some past campaign-related activity in state Capitol offices, such as blast campaign-style e-mails, he stressed that he did not coordinate or order such things because he was busy handling caucus leadership duties and traveling his sprawling district.
Thursday was the fourth day of DeWeese’s corruption trial in Harrisburg. The one-time Democratic floor leader and House Speaker from Greene County is accused by state prosecutors of illegally using legislative employees for political purposes. He is charged with theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest. After reading DeWeese’s testimony, prosecutors rested their case and Judge Todd Hoover said DeWeese could begin his case on Monday.
DeWeese’s lawyer, William Costopoulos, told reporters later that he would present “a very aggressive defense” that he anticipated would include 40 to 50 witnesses, including possibly DeWeese. Costopoulos also pointed out that DeWeese was the only elected official to voluntarily testify before the grand jury.
“I didn’t ask for any protection because I didn’t need any, I thought,” DeWeese told the grand jury. “Now you’ve told me some things that I wish had not happened.”
The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported that a former aide to DeWeese, Sharon Rodavich, testified earlier in the day that she spent years running DeWeese’s re-election campaigns and told the jury that it was “common” for his state-paid staff to perform campaign work on taxpayers-paid time.
DeWeese’s district staff did a variety of election-related tasks, including gathering signatures on nominating petitions, on taxpayer-paid time and were pressured to work on campaigns and make financial contributions, Rodavich testified.
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