HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state Supreme Court justice who is fighting political corruption charges has lost a request for her fellow justices to intervene in her criminal court case and require that an out-of-county judge preside over it.

The state Supreme Court issued the one-page order denying the request from suspended Justice Joan Orie Melvin on Tuesday. Melvin had sought to keep Allegheny County judges from hearing her case, complaining that one Allegheny County judge is married to a key prosecution witness, Lisa Sasinoski.

Melvin also had objected to a local district judge presiding over her preliminary hearing, saying the case may be too complex. Melvin asked her colleagues on the state Supreme Court to intervene after an Allegheny County judge denied her initial request. A spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Wednesday that “this case is no different from the dozens of criminal cases that magisterial district justices in Allegheny County hear each week.”

Melvin, 56, was charged May 18 with illegally using her taxpayer-funded Superior Court staff to work on her 2003 and 2009 political campaigns for a seat on the state’s highest court. She lost the first race, but won the second.

Melvin is scheduled to appear in court July 30 for a preliminary hearing in which a district judge must determine whether prosecutors showed enough evidence to support the charges and send the case to county court for a full criminal trial.

Sasinoski, a former law clerk to Melvin, told the grand jury that Melvin’s aide and sister, Janine Orie, ordered her to work the polls for Melvin in the 2003 election. Sasinoski testified that she told Melvin after the election that the illegal campaign activities needed to end; the next day, she was fired.

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts has said Melvin is apparently only the second sitting justice ever to face criminal charges. Justice Rolf Larsen was accused in 1993 of using the names of court employees to fraudulently obtain prescription drugs. He was removed from the bench when the charges were filed and convicted the following year.

Another Melvin sister, former state Sen. Jane Orie, is in jail after her conviction in March. She was accused of using her state-funded legislative staff to perform campaign work for herself and Melvin.