HARRISBURG -- Attorney General Tom Corbett today filed charges against a dozen figures in the payroll bonus scandal, including former House Democratic Whip Michael Veon and current state Rep. Sean Ramaley.

		Profiles of key figures • Scott Brubaker, former Democratic Caucus official • Jennifer Brubaker, research office director • Brett Cott, political operative • Jeff Foreman, high-level House staffer • Stephen A. Keefer, director of information technology • Patrick 'P.J.' Lavelle, research analyst • Michael Manzo, high-level House aide • Rachel Hursh Manzo, House aide • Earl Mosley, Democratic House staffer • Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink, district office manager • Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Economy • Michael R. Veon, former House Democratic Whip • Closer Look: Recommended charges, Maximum sentences Reader Forum: What do you think? • Share your comments; see what others have to say Timeline • How the bonus scandal unfolded

Reports by two grand juries -- one in Pittsburgh and another sitting here -- laid out an array of accusations, including a conspiracy to deliver more than $1 million in state-paid bonuses to House employees who worked on political campaigns. Mr. Ramaley, 33, D-Economy, was accused of working full-time on his 2004 House campaign in Beaver County while drawing a taxpayer salary as a member of Mr. Veon's staff.

In all, the grand jurors said tax money was used to pay for one high-ranking staff member's mistress; to bump Independent candidates Ralph Nader and Carl Romanelli off the ballot; to provide workers for legislative races around the state, including Mr. Veon's; to transport Mr. Veon's motorcycles to South Dakota for a vacation in 2004; and to pay for dinners for members of Mr. Veon's informal basketball league.

"The theft of taxpayers' funds and resources was extensive," Mr. Corbett said, announcing a raft of charges and promising more to come.

"Let me make this perfectly clear -- this is not the conclusion," he told a press conference here.

In addition to Mr. Veon and Mr. Ramaley, charges were filed against:

• Michael L. Manzo, 39, former chief of staff to Majority Leader H. William DeWeese. Mr. Manzo is accused of conspiracy in connection with the bonus scandal, engineering ballot challenges using state workers and hiding a girlfriend on the state payroll in a phony state office above a cigar store in Pittsburgh's South Side.

• Jeff Foreman, 57, currently legal counsel to House Minority Whip Keith McCall. He is accused of participating in the bonus plot while chief of staff to Mr. Veon and of directing an ongoing, partisan political operation from inside Mr. Veon's Capitol office.

• Rachel Hursh Manzo, 27, an aide to state Rep. Todd Eachus and wife of Mr. Manzo. She is accused of organizing House employees to work on legislative campaigns on state time and doing so herself during Mr. Veon's unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2006.

• Scott V. Brubaker, 43, former director of administration for the House Democrats. He is accused of playing a key role in arranging the illegal bonuses, directing state workers to perform political tasks and helping to orchestrate the candidate petition challenges.

• Jennifer Brubaker, 36, who is married to Mr. Brubaker and who directs the House Democratic Office of Legislative Research, the scene of a search warrant in August. She is accused of directing legislative employees to do political work in her office, including opposition research.

• Brett W. Cott, 36, a top aide to Mr. Veon, who is accused of widespread corruption, including conspiracy in the bonus scandal and running an ongoing political operation out of Mr. Veon's state office. "Brett Cott's title on Veon's staff was policy analyst, but according to numerous witnesses he was hired because of his campaign skills and was one of the lead promoters of the culture of using taxpayer funds for campaign purposes," the grand jury said.

• Patrick J. Lavelle, 29, who the grand jury described as a full-time political operative in Mr. Veon's Harrisburg office, that he had no other duties beyond fundraising.

• Annamarie Peretta-Rosepink, 45, director of Mr. Veon's Beaver County district office. She is accused of directing state employees to work on an array of political campaigns, including those of state Reps. Thomas Tangretti and state Sen. Wayne Fontana, as well as for other Democratic candidates. She is also accused of roles in the Nader and Romanelli petition challenges.

• Stephen A.H. Keefer, 38, former director of information technology for the House Democrats. He is accused of directing state employees to work on political campaigns, using state equipment to design political materials and creating a special Leaders' Communications Office with public funds to transmit political messages.

• Earl J. Mosley, 53, former director of personnel for the House Democrats. Grand jurors said he helped arrange payment of the illegal bonuses, and obtained a bonus himself for campaign work.

Mr. Corbett yesterday pointedly declined to clear Mr. DeWeese, the House Democratic leader who was ostensibly in charge of the caucus.

"The investigation is continuing," was Mr. Corbett's only answer when asked about Mr. DeWeese's status. Mr. DeWeese was widely known to have cooperated in the bonus probe, handing over tens of thousands of e-mails as well as material not even subpoenaed by the prosecutors.

In November, Mr. DeWeese summarily fired Mr. Manzo, Scott Brubaker, Mr. Mosley, and four others when their names turned up on e-mails discussing state bonuses in return for political work.

One of those fired, Lauren McClure, an employee in Mr. Brubaker's office, sent an e-mail to Mr. Mosley and Mr. Brubaker titled "bonus payments for special election volunteers." She was not among those charged today.

Key testimony in the grand jury was provided by one of the major conspirators in the bonus plot -- former director of member services Eric Webb. Mr. Webb kept track of political hours worked by state employees, and created a series of spreadsheets to rate their political work with an eye toward additional state pay.

Among the more sensational charges were allegations that Mr. Manzo arranged the hiring of Angela Bertugli, with whom he had a sexual affair that began in the summer of 2004 in Harrisburg.

Grand jurors said Mr. Manzo said he would use Mr. DeWeese's clout to get Miss Bertugli admitted to law school.

Prior to her admission, the grand jury said he installed Miss Bertugli in a state-paid office above a cigar store on Pittsburgh's South Side, where she had no actual legislative duties.

"Upon entering her new work space, Bertugli discovered a dingy, very dirty space containing a television, table, chairs, refrigerator, cabinets and desk which was adjacent to an area used as a cigar-smoking spot," the grand jury said.

In January 2006, she was moved to a Downtown office in Pittsburgh but "continued to spend up to 70 percent of her paid time doing schoolwork or nothing" with the remaining 30 percent mostly spent on campaign-related tasks.

At Mr. Manzo's direction, the presentment declares, Miss Bergugli left the state payroll and spent two weeks working on the state House campaign of state Rep. Chelsa Wagner, but retained her state benefits.

The grand jury also obtained a series of intimate e-mails between Miss Bertugli and Mr. Manzo.

The grand jury said the ballot challenge efforts against Mr. Nader, who sought a place on the Pennsylvania ballot in 2004 as a Green Party candidate for president, was essentially divided between Mr. Veon's Beaver Falls district office and his Capitol office in Harrisburg.

Mrs. Peretta-Rosepink, the Beaver Falls office manager, directed the western Pennsylvania portion of the effort and Mr. Foreman and Mr. Manzo coordinated Harrisburg efforts.

More than 34,000 signatures were challenged and Mr. Nader was kept off the ballot. It was generally assumed at the time that Mr. Nader's presence on the ballot could siphon votes from Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Mr. Veon issued a congratulatory e-mail to staff on Oct. 13, 2004: "You have given John Kerry an even better opportunity to win this state," Mr. Veon wrote.

The grand jury identified 36 state employees who were involved in the Nader ballot challenge, 29 of whom received state bonuses for 2004.

Two years later, the same tactic was used to keep Carl Romanelli, an independent candidate, off the ballot for U.S. Senate.

"Brett Cott assumed the laboring oar in organizing and orchestrating the operation," the grand jury wrote. Once again, Mr. Foreman assisted in directing the contribution of Veon's office staff "which worked day in and day out on the petitions, while being paid by the taxpayers."

Larry Otter, Mr. Romanelli's lawyer in the petition challenges, today said he was "sick" at the extent of state labor involved.

"God knows what was going on the behind the scenes to get Romanelli off the ballot. It's beyond outrageous. It's a subversion of Democracy. It makes Pennsylvania's ballot access a joke," Mr. Otter said.

Eric Buxton, a former employee of the Caucus Information Technology Office, testified under a grant of immunity and said he developed a system to allow mass e-mail communications to distribute the caucus's message. He told the grand jury that he worked the arrangement with Mr. Manzo, Mr. Keefer and Mr. Veon.

"The stated purpose of the office was to relay legislative initiatives and achievements of the Caucus to the people of Pennsylvania by means of web sites and e-mails. However, Buxton testified that is was very clear from the beginning that he, Veon, Manzo and Keefer intended to use this operation for campaign purposes," the grand jury said.

In all, the caucus later spent $1.2 million of state funds to purchase e-mail addresses for the project.

He testified that the first use of the system was in a 2005 special election in the 131st Legislative District, on behalf of Democratic candidate Linda Minger.

Mr. Buxton testified that he arranged to route the mails through a computer server in Michigan and to label them as coming from the House Democratic Campaign Committee when in fact they were done using taxpayer resources.

Mr. Buxton also said he set up the House Democratic Campaign Committee Web site in 2004 while on the state payroll and later started his own company to distribute "blast" campaign e-mails that originated within the capitol.

While Mr. DeWeese's signature appeared on those contracts, grand jurors said testimony showed Mr. DeWeese's signature was forged by a secretary at Mr. Manzo's direction.

The grand jury said the importance of campaign work as a measure of caucus employment was captured in a series of e-mails dealing with Michele Borlinghaus, a first-year hire assigned to the Legislative Research Office.

From June 2005, one month after she was hired, to November 2006, she spent six months on campaign work, including the special election to replace state Rep. Jeff Habay, a Republican who was removed from office for using state workers and resources for his political campaigns.

On July 23, 2006, Mrs. Brubaker, her supervisor, wrote to Mr. Manzo about what she viewed as substandard state work by Miss Borlinghaus.

"Every manager has encountered significant problems with her work product," said Mrs. Brubaker, who said her work contained glaring errors as well as problems with spelling and grammar.

Mrs. Brubaker said she could not recommend Miss Borlinghaus for the standard 3 percent meritorious work increment usually given House employees.

Mr. Manzo replied two days later, informing Mrs. Brubaker that Miss Borlinghaus should receive the full bonus "given what she has done and how pleased Veon was with her Beaver effort" and said "it would send the wrong signal."

Mrs. Brubaker then wrote to her husband, Scott, to ask what Mr. Manzo's e-mail meant.

"It's clear that he values sending the signal about campaigning outweighs any concern for sending a signal concerning incompetence," Mr. Brubaker replied.

Staff writer Tracie Mauriello contributed to this story.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.