'I knew it was wrong,' former law clerk says
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Former chief law clerk Lisa Sasinoski, who worked for Joan Orie Melvin in both Common Pleas Court and state Superior Court, testified Thursday that she knew she should not have spent her work time helping the judge run for state Supreme Court in 2003.
"It's my understanding you're not even allowed to have yard signs," Ms. Sasinoski said. "I knew it was wrong, and we shouldn't be doing it."
But she continued, "I really felt like there was no other choice."
She said she took orders from Janine Orie, the judge's sister and de facto office manager, and did what she was told.
That included traveling with the judge across Pennsylvania to campaign events, working the polls and writing speeches for her.
"I stood in the back while she delivered the speech that I wrote," Ms. Sasinoski said.
She was the first witness called Thursday during a three-hour hearing on new charges filed against Janine Orie.
On Dec. 16, the Allegheny County district attorney's office filed four additional counts against Ms. Orie, including theft of services, tampering with evidence and criminal solicitation.
District Judge Anthony Ceoffe bound the charges over to Common Pleas Court, and they will be joined to the case already pending against both Janine Orie and another sister, state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless.
They are accused of using the senator's staff and resources to run now-Justice Melvin's Supreme Court campaign in 2009.
Jane and Janine Orie went on trial in February, but a mistrial was declared while the jury deliberated after prosecutors accused the defense of submitting falsified records as exhibits.
Since then, the district attorney's office filed additional charges against Jane Orie, accusing her of perjury and forgery.
The trial for both sisters is scheduled to begin Feb. 13.
Justice Melvin has not been charged, and the district attorney's office will not say if any charges are forthcoming.
Her attorney, J. Alan Johnson, who attended Thursday's hearing, declined comment afterward.
During one of their campaign trips, Ms. Sasinoski said that she and Justice Melvin stopped at Jane Orie's Harrisburg office and loaded the judge's car up with boxes of blank paper.
They took it back to the judge's office.
Three former or current staff members of Justice Melvin testified that Janine Orie spent hours each work week during the campaign season printing, copying and writing letters and thank-you cards from the judicial office.
Ms. Sasinoski told Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Claus that she never confronted either Janine Orie or Justice Melvin about her feelings about election work.
"I never questioned that you wouldn't do it," she said.
"I'd heard them talk about other people who were hesitant to help."
Molly Creenan, who continues to work as deputy staff attorney for Justice Melvin on the Supreme Court, testified that after she refused to participate in political activity, the justice and Janine Orie refused to speak to her for several months.
Ms. Creenan said she went to the justice in December 2008 after she announced her plans to run for the state Supreme Court the next year.
"I wanted to make sure what happened in 2003 did not happen in 2009," she said. "I did not want there to be political activity in the office."
She told the woman that because of the Bonusgate investigation and conviction of former Rep. Jeff Habay, that no campaign work should be done by the staff.
"I told her our office would be under a lot of scrutiny because of those matters," she testified. "I didn't want that to happen to the judge or have the office involved."
Janine Orie's defense attorney, James DePasquale, repeatedly questioned the witnesses about whether his client's judicial work got done during the election campaigns.
They all agreed it did.
"It's very possible her Superior Court duties did not take all day to do," Ms. Creenan answered.
Later, Mr. DePasquale continued to question the issue.
He claimed that any improper campaign work conducted in 2009 was de minimis and that any activity that may have occurred in 2003 should be barred from being tried because the statute of limitations has run out.
"I don't know how somebody could spend their whole day doing campaign work and still get all their work done," he said following the hearing.
"It couldn't have been going on in any wholesale or rampant fashion."
First Published December 30, 2011 12:00 am
