Orie's attorney argues against legal bills
PITTSBURGH — The attorney for former GOP state Sen. Jane Orie argued that she shouldn’t have to repay more than $1.3 million that the Senate Republican caucus spent on attorneys related to her eventual conviction on campaign corruption charges.
Allegheny County prosecutors filed a motion this month asking Orie’s sentencing judge to order her to repay the money. Senate rules require the caucus to pay a sitting member’s legal fees during an investigation, though that stops once criminal charges are filed. Prosecutors contend that the state crimes code, separately, requires lawmakers to repay such funds if they are convicted.
But Orie’s attorney, William Costopoulos, said in his response that such a request is “unprecedented” and noted that other lawmakers convicted on corruption charges in recent years — including former state Reps. Bill DeWeese and Mike Veon, both Democrats, and John Perzel, a Republican — weren’t required to do so.
“This effort under this act was not pursued in any other case with any other agency,” Costopoulos wrote.
District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr.’s office didn’t comment on the defense filing late Thursday.
Costopoulos said it’s unfair to ask Orie to repay the money because most of the legal bills were to help the caucus figure out how to comply with search warrants for computer records used to prosecute Orie — most notably, Senate staff e-mails — without violating the privacy of the caucus and its employees.
All but $102,000 of the billed amount was for legal work for the caucus, not for Orie, Costopoulos said. But prosecutors have said Orie is nonetheless financially responsible because the investigation was driven by her behavior.
Orie, 50, of McCandless, resigned Monday and faces sentencing June 4 on five felony and nine misdemeanor counts including conflict of interest, theft and forgery for using her former state-funded staff to do political campaign and fundraising work since 2001.
She was convicted in March at a second trial made necessary after a mistrial was declared when she introduced a forged document in her defense last year.
Costopoulos hasn’t responded to e-mails and calls for comment on that motion.
