Assembly practices go on trial with former Pa. rep

[February 02, 2010]  HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The Legislature's practices went on trial Monday along with a former state lawmaker and three of his aides, as prosecutors and defense attorneys described how taxpayer resources have been used to run campaigns while disagreeing sharply about who was to blame.

The attorney general's office and lawyers for two of the four defendants made opening statements to a Dauphin County jury in the case against former Rep. Mike Veon and onetime legislative aides Brett Cott, Stephen Keefer and Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink. They are charged with theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.

Lawyers for Cott and Perretta-Rosepink are scheduled to address the jury Tuesday, after which testimony will begin in what could be a monthlong trial.

Veon, the second-ranking House Democrat before his defeat in 2006, helped create a plan to motivate legislative employees to pitch in on campaigns "and it worked like a charm," said Senior Deputy Attorney General Patrick Blessington.

Over three years, he said, $1.4 million in bonuses was awarded to state workers for campaign activity that helped the Democrats reclaim a House majority in 2006 for the first time in 12 years.

"The amount of campaign work you did was absolutely, positively and directly tied to the amount of money you would get, bonus money," Blessington said.

Blessington also described efforts by state workers to help Veon put on a fundraising event in his district, ship his motorcycles to an event in South Dakota, buy takeout food for a weekly basketball game he organized and challenge ballot petitions so favored Democrats would have easier campaigns.

It was "a classic example of organized, institutional, criminal behavior," Blessington said.

Veon lawyer Dan Raynak attacked how prosecutors have handled the investigation, saying their questions during the grand jury sessions let witnesses know the answers they wanted to hear.

"They were told you can guess, you can speculate, you can rely on rumors," Raynak said.

Raynak and Bill Fetterhoff, Keefer's attorney, both spent considerable time discussing alleged actions by the top-ranking House Democrat at the time, floor leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene -- as well as DeWeese's then-chief of staff Mike Manzo, and others.

"There was a conspiracy all right, but it had nothing to do with Mike Veon," Raynak said.

Raynak referred to DeWeese as "the only one who could allocate bonuses" and "the head guy, the top of the food chain. That's the guy who was in charge."

Fetterhoff gave jurors a rough outline of the House information technology office that Keefer headed as well as some of the computer services deals that are expected to be the focus of testimony.

He said employees in the hierarchical world of the General Assembly often feel they have to "do what you're told, that's the way it works."

Fetterhoff asked the jury to keep in mind "who made the decisions that controlled these events and who had criminal intent because that's at the heart of this."

The four defendants were among the first to be charged in a three-year investigation of the Legislature by state Attorney General Tom Corbett's office that has resulted in 25 arrests so far.

Seven of their co-defendants, including Manzo, have pleaded guilty. The only defendant so far to go to trial -- former state Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Beaver -- was acquitted of all charges in December. DeWeese has been charged with having his staff campaign on state time, but he is not a defendant in the current trial.

DeWeese has denied knowledge of the widespread use of bonuses for campaign purposes. DeWeese did not immediately return an e-mail message left Monday evening.

[Associated Press; By MARK SCOLFORO]

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