DeWeese: 'I didn't do anything wrong'
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HARRISBURG -- Seeming to summarize his morning on the witness stand, Democratic state Rep. Bill DeWeese left the jurors with two parting words as he stepped down: "Holy mackerel."
The one-time state House speaker from Waynesburg spent nearly three hours this morning refuting charges that he directed his legislative staffers to perform political activities during state work hours.
He vigorously tussled with prosecutors, disputing their allegations that in his office, campaign work and legislative work were one in the same. They described him as "driving the bus" of the House Democratic caucus in 2006 when some staffers received taxpayer-funded bonuses for political work and several of his former staffers say they were required to do politicking.
"Even though you were the guy driving the bus, you didn't look to see what was going on in the back of the bus?" asked deputy attorney general Ken Brown. "The bus is on fire and you didn't see it until 2007?"
Mr. DeWeese replied that he instructed his employees to follow the proper procedures: "I asked aggressively again and again and again for leave slips."
That campaigning was not a requirement, never something he "bullied" staffers to do, the 61-year-old legislator asserted.
"I didn't do anything wrong," Mr. DeWeese said, as a crowd of 40 or so on-lookers, including his mother and girlfriend, watched. "I don't believe I needed any immunity and still feel that way."
His emotions showed when prosecutors insisted that it was his former staffers who say that campaigning was part of their duties. He fired back that state investigators intimidated those district office aides when "you came to Greene County and dropped the F-bomb 400 times and beat them with a proverbial rubber hose."
Mr. DeWeese's testimony will be the last evidence for jurors to consider in weighing the six counts against him, including theft, conflict of interest and conspiracy. The defense rested its case before today's lunch break, and both sides offered closing arguments this afternoon.
The jury will receive instructions from Dauphin County judge Todd Hoover tomorrow morning before they begin their deliberations.
First Published February 1, 2012 10:20 am
