Judge to decide if DeWeese trial will be moved to Greene County
A judge will hear arguments later this month to determine if the trial for state Rep. Bill DeWeese will be moved from Dauphin County to Greene County.
DeWeese, accused of illegally using taxpayer-paid employees to do campaign work, contended in a motion filed last month by his attorney that almost all of his defense witnesses in the case live in Greene County. The 61-year-old Waynesburg Democrat and his former legislative aide, Sharon Rodavich, 55, were both charged by former state Attorney General Tom Corbett with conflict of interest, theft by unlawful taking, theft of services, theft by deception, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and criminal conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking.
Corbett, now governor, alleged that DeWeese used government employees and resources to run his political campaigns on the taxpayers’ money, and Rodavich participated.
A spokesmen for the state attorney general’s office declined comment on DeWeese’s request on Tuesday.
The cases were filed in Dauphin County, where Harrisburg is located. Last month, a Dauphin County judge set the trials for January.
In the motion for change of venue, DeWeese’s attorney wrote that many of the alleged criminal acts occurred in Greene County, and said that Dauphin County has been “unfairly burdened” with several major prosecutions in legislative corruption cases.
“The fact that all of the ‘bonusgate’ prosecutions to date have been prosecuted and tried in Dauphin County has increased the danger of prejudicial pretrial publicity,” wrote DeWeese lawyer Bill Costopoulos in a motion filed May 4.
Among the allegations made were that DeWeese had a staffer in Harrisburg whose job consisted, in part, of fundraising for campaigns between 2002 and 2007.
During a July preliminary hearing, an agent from the attorney general’s office testified DeWeese testified before a grand jury that mixing legislative work and campaign work “was part of the culture” in Harrisburg.
However, DeWeese’s attorney said at the time that DeWeese also told the grand jury that staffers were told to take compensatory time, vacation time or personal days to do campaign work.
Judge Barry Feudale will hear arguments on the motion on June 27.
(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)