HARRISBURG -- Court motions laden with accusations that Attorney General Tom Corbett engaged in the same practices he's prosecuting in the Bonusgate investigation have delayed former state Rep. Steve Stetler's preliminary hearing on government corruption charges.

Mr. Stetler, a York Democrat, was to hear some of the government's evidence against him this morning in a hearing designed to determine whether there is sufficient proof to hold the case for trial.

Instead, Dauphin County Judge Richard A. Lewis will delay the hearing to give the attorney general time to respond to a pair of 40-page motions before allowing any more court proceedings related to the criminal investigation known as Bonusgate.

Joshua D. Lock, attorney for Mr. Stetler and former state Rep. Brett O. Feese, filed the motions Wednesday.

He is seeking to have criminal charges dropped against both of his clients and asking to disqualify the office of Attorney General Tom Corbett from prosecuting their cases.

Mr. Stetler and Mr. Feese, a Lycoming Republican, are among 25 charged since July 2008 in a wide-ranging government corruption investigation known as Bonusgate.

Three of them -- former state Rep. Mike Veon and aides Brett Cott and Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink -- were found guilty of multiple felony counts Monday. Two others have been acquitted and seven others pleaded guilty.

In motions filed in Dauphin County Courthouse yesterday, Mr. Lock argued that Mr. Corbett used public resources to campaign even as his office was investigating similar conduct by others, including Mr. Feese and Mr. Stetler.

Mr. Corbett, a Republican, is running for governor.

Mr. Lock's motions include more than 300 pages of exhibits that he says show, for example, that Mr. Corbett used his campaign cell phone to call his office on work time 103 times over 14 months.

Other exhibits indicate that he "parked" three employees in state jobs until they were needed for politics, then transferred them to campaign payroll. Mr. Lock also says that Mr. Corbett used state drivers and state vehicles on campaign trips.

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said that use of state workers for campaigns was appropriate because the employees went off state payroll and were not receiving state benefits.

The crux of the Bonusgate case involves the use of public resources -- including taxpayer funded bonuses, state computer contracts and office equipment -- for political campaigns.

Mr. Corbett "is prosecuting these people for acts that appear to be comparable to ones he committed himself. That raises very, very significant issues about what standard should be applied" to cases involving the use of state resources on state time," Mr. Lock said in an interview Thursday. "Is the standard what he says or what he does?"

He said Mr. Corbett has a history of using his office to prosecute and intimidate political opponents, including a former campaign consultant to John Morganelli, the Northhampton County district attorney who challenged in him in the 2008 attorney general race.

"He has shown a willingness to use the system any way he can to accommodate his political goals; that's what's so scary about this," Mr. Lock said.

According to Mr. Lock's motions, Mr. Corbett's office solicited campaign donations from Mr. Feese and others even as his office was investigating them.

That raises "the obvious question of whether [Corbett fund-raisers] encouraged the notion that prosecution could be avoided by political contributions," according to one motion.

A search of campaign finance reports show no contributions from Mr. Feese to Mr. Corbett since 2003.

Attorneys for other defendants in the Bonusgate probe previously raised some of the same issues as Mr. Lock, but their arguments were dismissed.

The attorney general's office is confident Mr. Lock's will be too, Mr. Harley said.

"It is obvious that defendants Stetler and Feese are attempting to manufacture a defense taken from the unsuccessful playbook of convicted felons Mike Veon and Brett Cott," he said. "When you don't have a plausible defense, you accuse your accuser."

Mr. Harley said the attorney general's office intends to refute every claim in Mr. Lock's motion.

Judge Lewis will give the office two weeks to do so. Meanwhile, he has called for a delay in Bonusgate proceedings.

Mr. Stetler was charged with four counts of theft, one count of conflict of interest and one count of conspiracy.

Meanwhile, Mr. Feese has been charged with 62 criminal counts including theft, conflict of interest, hindering prosecution, conspiracy and obstructing the administration of law.

After leaving the Legislature, Mr. Stetler served as state revenue secretary and Mr. Feese served as chief legal counsel to the House Republican caucus. Both resigned near the time of their arrests -- Feese in November and Stetler in December.

The charges against them relate to their time as lawmakers.

Both are accused of directing state workers to campaign on work time. Additionally, Mr. Feese is accused of conspiring to use taxpayer-funded computer contracts for political work and trying to mislead agents investigating the corruption allegations.

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