Republican state Sen. Jane Orie's lawyer wants her public corruption retrial barred because of double jeopardy and wants the Pennsylvania Superior Court to recuse the trial judge from presiding over it.
Orie is scheduled to be retried Monday on conflict of interest and other public corruption charges alleging that she used her legislative staff to do campaign work for herself and another sister, State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
The appeal filed Friday by Orie's attorney, William Costopoulos, is expected to delay Monday's retrial although the appeals court did not immediately issue such an order. In essence, Costopoulos claims that prosecutors were aware of possible problems with the documents Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning found to be forged days before bringing them to the attention of the judge.
