Deweese

HARRISBURG - It was business as usual. Everyone did it. Working on politics during the legislative day was just a part of the daily grind in the state Capitol. And though State Rep. Bill DeWeese was the top House Democrat during much of the time it went on, he was merely "a figurehead," leaving the day-to-day legislative operations to others. So testified William G. Chadwick Jr., a former prosecutor and state inspector general, and the first witness called to the stand Monday morning to begin DeWeese's defense.

HARRISBURG - Tuesday's primary will be like no other election Rep. Bill DeWeese has experienced in his lengthy career in the state House. Even as voters in his southwestern Pennsylvania district punch the button next to his name, the former longtime House Democratic leader will be 180 miles away in Harrisburg, where he is scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on five felony counts in a corruption case. Because that will trigger a constitutional ban on felons serving as lawmakers, DeWeese has said he will resign - before sentencing - from the 50th District seat he has held for 35 years.

Now that House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) has been more clearly implicated in Harrisburg's bonus scandal, voters in his home district should have the good sense to do what his Democratic cronies are unwilling to do - toss him out. DeWeese's former chief of staff, Mike Manzo, sang loudly at a criminal court hearing last week. Manzo said he believed DeWeese knew that Manzo and other Democratic officials were rewarding staffers with cash bonuses for political work, courtesy of taxpayers.

The jury in Rep. Bill DeWeese's political corruption trial deliberated for six hours Thursday before breaking for the day without a verdict. The jurors asked for evidence to be brought back to the deliberation room, including copies of the transcript of DeWeese's grand jury testimony. Dauphin County Court President Judge Todd A. Hoover denied that request but allowed them to review several boxes containing leave slips that legislative employees submitted when they conducted political work during legislative hours.

Longtime State Rep. Bill DeWeese says he will run for reelection this year even as he faces theft charges in the so-called Bonusgate scandal. In a statement yesterday, DeWeese did not mention those charges except to say, "Obviously in this election I am facing unprecedented challenges. But as a Marine and a longtime public servant, I am well prepared for the battle ahead. " On Dec. 15, state Attorney General Tom Corbett charged DeWeese, 59, with theft, conspiracy, and conflict of interest.

HARRISBURG – He is nothing more than a common thief, prosecutors argued. He is a man framed by corrupt underlings, his defense attorney countered. Those were the two versions presented of Rep. Bill DeWeese, the onetime Democratic leader from Western Pennsylvania, at the start of his trial Monday morning in a Dauphin County courtroom just blocks away from the Capitol. DeWeese is charged with conspiracy and other crimes in the political corruption case stemming from the state Attorney General's Bonusgate investigation.

HARRISBURG - House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese may have just survived a grueling reelection battle, but his time as the top Democrat in the chamber apparently will soon come to an end. Last night, the Greene County Democrat and 33-year legislative veteran said that he would not seek another term as majority leader but instead would vie for Democratic whip, the third-ranking position. DeWeese said that he believed he could get enough votes to remain majority leader, but feared that doing so might hurt party unity.

HARRISBURG - The jury in the corruption trial of State Rep. Bill DeWeese deliberated for a second full day Friday without reaching a verdict. The seven women and five men broke for the weekend after eight hours of deliberations and are scheduled to return Monday. The only public signal they gave was when, for the second time, they asked Dauphin County Court President Judge Todd A. Hoover if they could see specific pages from the transcript of DeWeese's testimony before the grand jury that ultimately recommended theft charges against him. Hoover for a second time denied the request, citing court rules that the judge said bar a jury from reviewing such testimony.

HARRISBURG — Former longtime House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese on Monday began serving a 2½- to five-year prison term for corruption. DeWeese, 62, reported to Dauphin County Prison about 1 p.m., a half-hour ahead of the court-ordered deadline, officials said. "I just want to say three things. One, I'm going to behave myself and obviously conform to the protocols of the institution; two, I'm going to stay in tip-top physical condition; and third and finally, I'm going to make some new friends," DeWeese told WHTM-TV.

HARRISBURG — In the span of several hours Tuesday, former top House Democrat Bill DeWeese quit his legislative seat, attempted to win it back, and was sentenced to 2-1/2 to five years in prison for crimes committed while he was in office. DeWeese, 62, resigned the seat he held for nearly 36 years shortly before a judge sentenced him for theft and other political corruption convictions stemming from the wide-ranging "Bonusgate "investigation in the Capitol. He was also ordered to pay $25,000 in fines and $116,000 in restitution to the state.

HARRISBURG — Former House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese was sentenced today to 2-1/2 to 5 years in prison for theft and other political corruption charges stemming from the wide-ranging Bonusgate investigation in the Capitol. In sentencing DeWeese, Dauphin County President Judge Todd Hoover called the former legislator "the instigator" of the criminal activity, and said he violated the public trust. DeWeese, 62, who resigned his southwestern Pennsylvania legislative seat effective noon Tuesday, has said he will appeal his conviction.

HARRISBURG - Tuesday's primary will be like no other election Rep. Bill DeWeese has experienced in his lengthy career in the state House. Even as voters in his southwestern Pennsylvania district punch the button next to his name, the former longtime House Democratic leader will be 180 miles away in Harrisburg, where he is scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on five felony counts in a corruption case. Because that will trigger a constitutional ban on felons serving as lawmakers, DeWeese has said he will resign - before sentencing - from the 50th District seat he has held for 35 years.

  HARRISBURG - Come Tuesday, State Rep. Bill DeWeese will be twice judged: once by criminal court, and once by constituents back home. In an improbable twist of fate, the onetime Democratic powerhouse is to be sentenced that day in a Harrisburg courtroom for stealing from taxpayers - and at the same time, will be running in his party's primary to represent his rural southwestern Pennsylvania district for two more years. He is running unopposed. Even in the corruption-caked annals of Pennsylvania politics, this rare confluence of events could produce an even rarer result: a jailed DeWeese on the fall ballot in a race his supporters think he could win. Is his candidacy a slap at the jury in his case, an offshoot of the wide-ranging Bonusgate investigation?

HARRISBURG - With the approach of his sentencing on corruption charges, State Rep. Bill DeWeese took to the House floor Tuesday to bid farewell to the chamber where he has served for more than three decades and which he, for a time, ruled. DeWeese, a Democrat and former House speaker, has continued to represent his Southwestern Pennsylvania district since his conviction in February on corruption charges, but the law bars him from remaining in office after his April 24 sentencing. The House meets this week for the last time before that day, which is also the date of the Pennsylvania primary.

HARRISBURG - A jury yesterday convicted state Rep. Bill DeWeese on all but one of six charges in the latest corruption trial stemming from a five-year investigation into the use by state legislators of taxpayers' resources for political purposes. DeWeese, 61, was convicted of felony counts of conspiracy, of conflict of interest and of three counts of theft. The Dauphin County jury acquitted him of one other theft count. The verdict, reached early on the third day of deliberations, struck a grave blow to the 35-year career of the former floor leader, who also once served as House speaker.

TODAY'S budget address by Governor Tom Corbett is not expected to be pretty: not with an expected shortfall of $500 million that will undoubtedly be met with cuts in health, human services and higher education. We can expect the usual outcry from education and social-service advocates over these cuts, and the usual complaints from the governor and others that spending for higher ed, human services and health is wasteful and needs to be pared. Here's a suggestion - let's instead moan about another key cause of budget problems in the state: the vampire class in Harrisburg, otherwise known as the members of the General Assembly, who help suck the monetary lifeblood out of the state.

HARRISBURG - Even after the guilty verdicts, State Rep. Bill DeWeese was defiant. After a jury convicted him Monday of theft, conspiracy, and other charges, the former House Democratic leader professed his innocence, said he would not give up his seat just yet, and vowed to keep seeking reelection. Another once-powerful Democrat, Rep. Dwight Evans of Philadelphia, said DeWeese was "an embarrassment to the House" and should resign. DeWeese not only vowed to stay - he asked current House Democratic leaders to put him on the ceremonial committee that escorts Gov. Corbett to the dais Tuesday for the governor's annual budget address.