"I certainly feel I did nothing wrong," DeWeese told reporters moments after the Dauphin County jury of seven women and five men delivered guilty verdicts on five of six charges brought by the state Attorney General's Office. The jurors acquitted him of one theft charge.
The Marine Corps veteran-turned-legislator also said he believed a jury from his southwestern Pennsylvania district would have acquitted him of all charges, and said he hoped that district would reelect him later this year. It is why he intends to keep showing up for work in the Capitol, he said, including for Corbett's scheduled budget speech.
For months, he has contended Corbett used him to rise to the governorship. Corbett was attorney general when that office charged DeWeese in 2009.
"I am still a member of the General Assembly," he said before stepping into an elevator with his defense attorney, Bill Costopoulos. A short time later, true to his word, DeWeese was back on the floor of the House.
For his part, Costopoulos called the jury's verdict a disappointment, but he added that he would have appellate courts "review everything."
"I am very saddened for Mr. DeWeese because I believed in the position we set forth," Costopoulos said. "I think the legislature has been under assault for years, and this mayhem has got to come to a stop."
The case against DeWeese grew out of the so-called Bonusgate investigation, prompted by news reports that House Democratic aides were getting state bonuses for political work. Prosecutors said DeWeese directed, and in some cases even forced, legislative staffers to do campaign work while on the taxpayer time and dime.
