Testimony Resumes In Orie Melvin Corruption Trial
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The corruption trial of Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin and her sister, Janine Orie continues Tuesday.
Key witness, Jamie Pavlot, the ex-chief of staff for former State Sen. Jane Orie was on the stand Tuesday morning.
She testified on Monday that while working for Jane Orie, she did campaign work for Joan Orie Melvin.
Pavlot's signature was altered in an incident that caused a mistrial in the first Jane Orie trial, and she was subject to surveillance when boxes of documents were removed from Orie's office once it was learned that allegations of campaign work being done on state time were being investigated.
Pavlot also said that when she removed boxes from the senator's office, both Jane Orie and Joan Orie Melvin asked her to remove political materials from those boxes.
But that wasn't done.
Defense attorney Dan Brier pointed out a number of inconsistencies in Pavlot's testimony, then he keyed in on her most damaging testimony against his client.
Referring to the alleged call from justice Melvin:
"Do you have any notes at home of that call?"
"No sir," Pavlot said.
"Isn't the very first time you mentioned that call was at a proceeding in 2012? In all the grand jury testimony you never once testified my client told youto take documents out of those boxes?" she was asked.
"Yes sir," replied Pavlot.
And while the defense took effort to unseal a federal lawsuit involving Pavlot, they only made limited reference to it today.
Bottom line: she was under emotional distress during that time as well as when the Orie case was unfolding.
RELATED LINKS
More Local News
More News About This Trial
More Reports From Harold Hayes
