PITTSBURGH — A defense motion alleging the prosecution of former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht is politically motivated was filed too late and has no merit, a prosecutor said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings accused Wecht's attorneys in a filing Monday of creating a "parallel universe of faux facts entirely for public consumption."

Wecht's attorneys had filed a motion Friday asking a federal judge to determine whether an 84-count federal indictment against him is politically motivated. The attorneys argued that Republican U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is targeting Wecht because he is a Democrat, a charge she denies.

Stallings said the deadline for filing the bias motion was Oct. 1.

Wecht, 75, is scheduled for trial in January on charges he used his county staff to do work for his private multimillion-dollar pathology practice. The coroner resigned in January after being indicted.