Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the corruption charges against ex-state Rep. Mike Veon, the former No. 2 Democrat in the state House, will move forward in court.These were the same charges dismissed by a district justice last month. Attorney General Tom Corbett refiled the charges and asked a county judge to hear the matter.
From Bumsted's story:
The president judge of Dauphin County dismissed a request by former Rep. Mike Veon to throw out charges that accuse him of misusing money from the Beaver Initiative for Growth, a nonprofit created to spur economic development.Read the full story at the newspaper's Web site.
Judge Richard Lewis assigned Veon's case to a new district judge, after the Attorney General's Office refiled the majority of theft and conflict of interest charges against Veon and an aide (Annamarie Peretta-Rosepink) that another district judge dismissed last month.
Prosecutors allege that Veon and Rosepink used money from the nonprofit to pay for a satellite legislative office in Beaver County, politically connected consultants, and to pay a former state House member, Terry Van Horne, for state work.
Veon's former chief of staff, Jeffrey Foreman, claims Veon used BIG money to pay a $4,000-a-month retainer to Foreman's Harrisburg law firm for doing little work. Foreman has a plea agreement in a separate case.
Veon and Rosepink also face charges in that separate case for allegedly using state resources for political work.
1 comment:
I think the most bizarre twist to the bonusgate scandal is that former state representative Mike Veon filed court documents alleging his old buddy former caucus leader and now Majority Whip Bill DeWeese engaged in the same illegal activity that led to Veon being charged with multiple counts of public corruption. Veon argued the charges against him should be dropped because Corbett chose to selectively prosecute him and not others state officials who committed the same crimes.
I guess it’s the “well everybody else is doing it” argument we used to use as kids.
Rick Schenker
www.ChallengeCorruption.com
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