Judge denies Orie's requests
PITTSBURGH — A judge has denied state Sen. Jane Orie’s request both to postpone an Oct. 3 retrial on public corruption charges and to allow new charges, including perjury and forgery that grew out of her defense in the first trial, to be included at the retrial.
Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning, who issued the rulings Friday, declared a mistrial in March when he agreed with prosecutors that two defense exhibits were forged to mislead jurors during her first trial.
The jury had been considering whether the Pittsburgh-area senator, 49, and her sister Janine Orie, 57, directed the senator’s government staff to do campaign work to benefit the senator and a third sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
Melvin has not been charged with wrongdoing, and Janine Orie, an aide to Melvin, remains suspended with pay.
County prosecutors last month filed 16 new counts including perjury, forgery, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice against the Republican senator. The accusations relate to the documents Manning deemed to be forgeries, dozens of other defense exhibits and Orie’s testimony about them at her first trial.
A preliminary hearing on the new charges is scheduled for Sept. 28.
Orie’s attorney, William Costopoulos, wanted the new charges to be included as part of the illegal campaigning retrial. Manning denied that request, meaning Orie could face a separate trial on the new counts if a judge decides there’s enough evidence to support them.
In a two-page order Friday, Manning also said the October retrial will go on as scheduled.
Orie’s retrial could still be delayed or prevented entirely depending on what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court does with a petition Costopoulos filed Thursday. Costopoulos wants the state’s high court to consider, again, his arguments that the retrial should be barred under double jeopardy because he contends prosecutors raised the forgery issue during the first trial in March only because they feared the jury was going to acquit Orie.
