PITTSBURGH — Although state Sen. Jane Orie was convicted of using her state-paid staff to do political work that she benefited from, the Butler County lawmaker was acquitted of charges she similarly helped her sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

That portion of an Allegheny County jury’s verdict on Monday raises questions about whether Melvin will be charged, and what may happen when a third Orie sister, Janine, is tried months from now on related crimes.

The same grand jury that recommended charges against the senator sent Melvin a target letter and subpoena in December.

University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff said because of Sen. Orie’s acquittal on the Melvin-related charges “the district attorney’s office will go back to the drawing board and ask themselves, ‘How did we screw up presenting those witnesses and that evidence?’ and try to make a better presentation in Janine Orie’s trial.”

Still, both of the senator’s sisters “have real cause to be worried,” Burkoff said.

Janine Orie, 57, and the senator, 50, live with and care for their elderly father in McCandless. Janine Orie remains charged with conspiracy and diversion of services for allegedly directing the senator’s staff to campaign for Melvin, who was then still a Superior Court judge.

Janine Orie’s trial has yet to be scheduled and also includes newer charges alleging that she directed Melvin’s former Superior Court staff to campaign for Melvin. Janine Orie was Melvin’s Superior Court aide and moved to the Supreme Court with Justice Melvin, though Janine Orie is now suspended from that $67,000-a-year job because of the charges she faces.

Burkoff and other legal experts — including Janine Orie’s attorney — expect the charges involving Melvin’s staff will be the focus of Janine Orie’s eventual trial.

Much of the testimony at December’s three-hour preliminary hearing on the new charges involved Melvin’s unsuccessful 2003 bid for a Supreme Court seat against Justice Max Baer, who remains on the court and who now employs as a law clerk Lisa Sasinoski, a key witness against Janine Orie.

Sasinoski, whose husband is also an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge, told investigators she left Melvin’s staff in December 2003 after balking at doing political work at Janine Orie’s behest. Other Melvin staffers said they worked polls, traveled with Melvin to campaign events across the state and wrote speeches.

The grand jury presentment against Janine Orie suggests that Melvin was aware of the campaign work and even directed some of it.

That’s one reason several watchdog groups and other observers, including Duquesne University law professor Bruce Ledewitz, have called for Melvin to resign.

Sen. Orie’s acquittal on the Melvin-related charges “doesn’t change my mind in the slightest about the fact that (Melvin) has to resign” because “there are credible allegations in the grand jury documents now on the record against her.”

Justice Melvin has recused herself from hearing any cases originating in Allegheny County, which is where her sisters are being prosecuted, but Ledewitz said that’s only making matters worse, citing a recent Supreme Court decision in an allegedly illegal search warrant case out of Allegheny County.

The court split 3-3 on the case — upholding the lower court’s ruling by default — because Melvin wasn’t available to break the tie, Ledewitz said.

“We cannot go on this way. We have a part-time justice,” Ledewitz said. “Either she has to resign, she has to be charged, or she has to announce that as far as she’s concerned she’s innocent, and she has to go forward as a full-time judge.

“She was elected as a reformer, she must know the damage she’s doing to the court,” Ledewitz said.