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Melvin owes $128K

Conviction costs former justice fines, restitution

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin’s campaign corruption conviction will cost her not only three years on house arrest but also nearly $128,000 in fines, restitution and court costs.

As part of the penalties imposed at her resentencing Tuesday before Allegheny County Judge Lester Nauhaus, Melvin agreed to pay nearly $6,600 in restitution owed by her sister and former aide, Janine Orie. The sisters were convicted in February of conspiring to use Melvin’s former Superior Court staff and the state-paid staff of a third sister, former state Sen. Jane Orie, to work on Melvin’s 2003 and 2009 Supreme Court campaigns.

Melvin and her attorney declined to comment, but Janine Orie’s attorney, James DePasquale, said Melvin assumed her debt because she’s broke.

“She lives with her father; she no longer has a job,” DePasquale said. “She has nothing.”

Melvin and her 58-year-old sister were originally sentenced last week but were brought back primarily so the judge could ensure that Melvin’s house arrest was served as part of the county’s intermediate punishment program, under which she’ll be confined to her home with an electronic ankle bracelet.

Nauhaus originally sentenced Melvin to three concurrent three-year terms of house arrest but reconsidered because, under Pennsylvania law, any sentence for a single crime that carries more than two years’ confinement is considered to be a sentence overseen by the state. Nauhaus adjusted Melvin’s sentence so she’s now serving three consecutive one-year terms, which means she’ll still spend three years confined to her home, albeit clearly under county supervision.

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys asked for the change, but Nauhaus insisted on it to avoid having the issue raised on appeal.

“This is more a matter of form over substance than anything else,” Nauhaus said Tuesday.

The restitution issue, however, was unresolved last week, so Nauhaus addressed it, too.

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