Court grants petition to unseal documents in Orie case
Share with others:
The state Supreme Court granted a petition by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday to unseal documents related to a grand jury probe of state Sen. Jane Clare Orie that resulted in numerous criminal charges against her and her sister, Janine Orie.
The grand jury said the sisters assigned state employees to work on the state Supreme Court campaign of a third Orie sister -- Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
The Post-Gazette, along with WPXI-TV, filed the petition April 16.
A reporter with the newspaper had requested the documents in March, but was denied. In early April, Allegheny County Judge John A. Zottola sealed all of the motions and orders filed in the case that were related to a county grand jury proceeding, citing a state Supreme Court order in the matter.
But the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Judge Zottola erred in his interpretation of the order by sealing all of the motions.
The documents requested by the newspaper contain records of numerous motions filed by an attorney for Ms. Orie, including one asking that the district attorney's office be disqualified from prosecuting the case because of what the defense called a number of conflicts of interest.
Jane Orie is charged with 10 counts, including theft of services, tampering with evidence, conspiracy and violating the state ethics act. Janine Orie is charged with conspiracy and theft of services.
They were ordered to trial July 21. They are scheduled to be formally arraigned Sept. 9.
First Published August 19, 2010 12:00 am
