HARRISBURG -- Voted out of office and sentenced for putting ghost employees on his legislative payroll, former state Rep. Frank LaGrotta has been down on his luck.

That's down, but not out.

Mr. LaGrotta, who is serving six months' house arrest, is still eligible for a state pension that's nearly triple the per capita income in Lawrence County, where he served as state representative for two decades.

The Ellwood City Democrat is eligible for roughly $48,000 per year beginning in November, when he turns 50, according to calculations based on employment records provided by the State Employees' Retirement System.

He remains eligible despite his crimes because the charges to which he pleaded guilty this month -- two counts of conflict of interest -- don't fall under the retirement system's list of 23 crimes that require pension forfeiture. Those crimes include extortion, theft by deception, forgery, bribery and witness intimidation.

Legislative watchdogs like Eric Epstein are incredulous that Mr. LaGrotta remains eligible for his pension.

"It's unusual for victims of a crime to have to make payments to the person who victimized them," said Mr. Epstein, who runs the group Rock the Capitol, created during the 2005 pay-raise controversy.

The cash infusion should come in handy for Mr. LaGrotta who, as part of his sentence, paid a $5,000 fine and reimbursed the state the $27,000 it paid his sister and niece for legislative work they never did. Mr. LaGrotta also was sentenced to 500 hours' community service, 30 months of probation and six months of house arrest, during which he must wear an ankle bracelet and remain home except to go to church, medical appointments or job interviews.

His sister Ann Bartolomeo and niece Alyssa Lemmon pleaded no contest to giving false testimony before a state grand jury investigating the case. Ms. Lemmon received 18 months' probation and Mrs. Bartolomeo received 12 months' probation. Each was fined $3,000.

Dauphin County Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Lewis said Mr. LaGrotta's sentence wasn't as severe as it could have been because the former lawmaker is cooperating in "several investigations" by the state attorney general's office.

He did not specify which cases Mr. LaGrotta has been helping with, but the most prominent known case under investigation by Attorney General Tom Corbett involves the suspected illegal use of taxpayer money to pay legislative aides for campaign work.

So far, no charges have been filed in the bonus probe.

Mr. LaGrotta served as a state representative from 1986 to 2006, when angry voters turned him out of office along with other lawmakers who had supported the legislative pay raise the year before.