Ex-state Sen. Orie gets prison term for corruption

Restitution will be decided within 30 days based on legal briefs not yet submitted.

The statutory maximum penalty on the five felony counts is 3 1/2 to seven years in prison. Someone sentenced to less than two years’ incarceration can serve that time in the county jail. Anything longer calls for the sentence to be served in state prison.

Ms. Orie has been temporarily suspended from the practice of law as a result of her conviction.

The state Supreme Court issued the suspension on May 7. Her sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, did not participate in the decision. At the time the justice was herself the target of a grand jury. She has since been charged with nine criminal counts alleging misuse of state resources for campaign purposes.

Orie also resigned May 21 from the 40th Senatorial District seat she held for more than 10 years. "It has been an honor and a privilege for me to have served in the Senate of Pennsylvania," she wrote in a brief resignation letter.

Voters in the district in Western Pennsylvania will go to the polls Aug. 7 in a special election to replace her. Former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart of Bradford Woods, who represented the 40th District before her three terms in Congress, is among as many as eight Republicans indicating interest in the seat. Democrat Dan DeMarco, who lost to Orie in 2010, is thought to be his party’s likely candidate.