A defense lawyer for former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht was scolded in court yesterday for failing to follow a judge's order.

Jerry McDevitt, who joined Dr. Wecht's case in March, raised his voice in objecting to an order filed by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab yesterday in which the judge admitted all 1,351 exhibits offered by the government for trial.

"Quite frankly, your honor, I'm duty-bound to say I think it's unfair," Mr. McDevitt said. "I think it could be reversible error."

Judge Schwab told Mr. McDevitt that the defense was made aware in a March 1 order that any objections to the government's exhibit list had to be filed by May 15. Though the defense had expressed its objections to the prosecution's possible exhibits in court in the past, Dr. Wecht's lawyers never filed the paperwork required by the judge.

"You ignored my order, and there are consequences to ignoring my order," Judge Schwab said.

Mr. McDevitt told the judge it was impossible to go through all of the exhibits the government handed over to the defense to make the objections.

"There are 300,000 documents that these people have dumped on us," he said, claiming that the prosecution didn't supply the defense and judge with the same exhibit list. "That is impossible."

Judge Schwab said that all the defense needed to do was make a chart listing all of the exhibits, and what the objections were.

"There's nothing overwhelming about the number of exhibits in this case," the judge said.

Mr. McDevitt continued to argue with the judge, trying to temper his comments by starting each one with "With all due respect, your honor."

But after a few minutes, Judge Schwab told him: "I'm not going to tolerate yelling."

Finally, the judge cut Mr. McDevitt off, offering Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen S. Stallings one last chance to comment.

"The accusations leveled by Mr. McDevitt are typically false," he said.

Because Mr. Stallings did file objections to some of the defense exhibits offered, the judge said he will rule on those at a hearing next month.

Dr. Wecht is charged with 84 counts of misusing his public office for private gain.