PITTSBURGH — The lead FBI agent in the public corruption case against former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht did not tell prosecutors that he had been reprimanded in New Jersey for falsifying evidence records before obtaining search warrants in the Wecht investigation.

Wecht's defense attorney, Jerry McDevitt, grilled Special Agent Brad Orsini on Tuesday about his disciplinary record and the April 2005 search warrants in hopes of convincing a federal judge to throw out more than 20 tattered boxes of documents and other evidence.

Wecht, 76, a nationally known pathologist who has consulted on the deaths of JonBenet Ramsey and Elvis Presley, has denied charges that he used county employees to run private errands and do lab, billing and other work for his private pathology practice between 1996 and December 2005. Wecht also denies overbilling private clients by using fake travel agency bills.

Orsini acknowledged Tuesday having put other agents' initials on interview reports and records of seized drugs and money when he worked out of the FBI office in Newark, N.J. Orsini called that an "administrative shortcut" that did not affect the substance of the reports.

"I never falsified anything other than the agent initials or name to get them (the reports) into the files," Orsini said.

McDevitt suggested, however, that Orsini's misdeeds were more serious because the Justice Department has a policy requiring FBI agents and others to tell prosecutors about anything in their background that could call their truthfulness into question before they make sworn statements to obtain search warrants or for other purposes.

Also, FBI agents initial one another's work to show that they have reviewed it for accuracy. By faking the initials, Orsini had free rein to falsify the information in the reports without detection, McDevitt contends.

McDevitt noted that Orsini was described as "tightly wound" and a "bully" during the Newark investigations, and suggested that Orsini bullied witnesses into giving him the probable cause information he needed to search Wecht's private pathology office.

"Did you ever intimidate anybody in Dr. Wecht's case? Ever tell anybody they were 'toast?"' McDevitt asked. "No," Orsini said to both questions.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab convened a hearing June 8 on whether to suppress the evidence Orsini gathered, and the hearing continued Tuesday with Orsini's cross-examination by McDevitt.