Not only did he expect his staff to work on his campaigns, prosecutors alleged, he demanded it. And he would become furious when legislative employees did not participate in political activity, even going so far as to threaten to fire them.
When he was not expecting them to do political tasks, he never hesitated to ask them to run personal errands: pick up his dry-cleaning, do his grocery shopping, book tickets for his personal travel.
"What the evidence will show is that this defendant was a common thief with uncommon access to other people's time, other people's money, and other people's efforts," said Senior Deputy Attorney General Ken Brown in his opening statement to the jury of seven women and five men. "We are talking about public moneys that were taken by this defendant and used for his own campaign work and for his own personal amusement."
DeWeese's lawyer, William Costopoulos, countered that the Democratic lawmaker was wrongly being held up as the guilty party by others who were facing serious criminal charges and who would say anything and blame anyone to stay out of jail.
Among those witnesses Costopoulos singled out: Mike Manzo, DeWeese's former chief of staff, who was charged in the original Bonusgate case and who pleaded guilty in return for his testimony.
Costopoulos said DeWeese was not disputing that campaign work occurred during legislative hours. But he argued that the Democrat, a veteran of the Marine Corps, always urged his legislative staff to take appropriate leave when they performed campaign work, whether that be vacation, personal, or compensatory time.
"They are going to trash him," Costopoulos told the jury, pointing to the prosecution team. "Thief. Politician."
