PG update on Orie mistrial

[Divernan]

"Mr. Claus said that his suspicions about the documents were first piqued by the Pavlot signature on a Sept. 13, 2004, listing of office rules on the letterhead of Jane Orie. The signature on that copy was slightly askew and the final "s" on the word witness, next to the signature, had disappeared. Mr. Claus had pointed out the odd appearance during the trial but stopped short of making any specific accusations about them then.

He said his concern promoted a review of all defense documents submitted at the same time as the Sept. 13 message. The review suggested that the Pavlot signature on a similar Sept. 16, 2004, listing of office regulations had been cut and pasted -- not in the word processing sense of the term, but literally -- onto a Sept. 25, 2006, letter supposedly sent from Ms. Pavlot to the senator.

After the session recessed to allow prosecutors to rustle up a documents expert, the Orie team huddled in the hallway while prosecutors returned to their offices. The courtroom has seldom been more than half-filled through the trial, but by the time of the ensuing midafternoon hearing, it was the toughest ticket on Grant Street. Audience chairs were filled. OTHER CURIOUS OBSERVERS INCLUDING JUDGES DONNA JO MCDANIEL AND DAVID CASHMAN FOUND SEATS IN THE JURY BOX FOR THE STUNNING REALITY SHOW.(EMPHASIS ADDED)

In a subsequent hearing, Mr. Claus presented a handwriting expert, George Papadopoulos, who affirmed that the signatures on both the Sept. 13, 2004, document, and a Sept. 25, 2006, letter, supposedly sent from Ms. Pavlot to Jane Orie, were forgeries."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11063/1129568-455.stm#ixzz1FdGl3sAe

[Divernan]

1. Judge Mcdaniel is President Judge of the whole county court system.

It is a very big deal that she came to observe this. Word about such a shocking development must have spread through the Court House and along Grant Street like wildfire. I am curious to see whether Judge Manning (who as administrative judge of the Criminal Division, gets to assign cases) assigns the new trial to himself.

I bet Costopoulos argues for (1) a different trial judge because of Manning's comments on fraud about this evidence (because they were made before any evidence expert even gave an opinion, let alone anyone was charged and convicted of fraud); and
(2) a change of venue to a different county because of all the publicity about the trial and the fraud/forgery statements by a judge in Allegheny County. And any other county in southwestern PA would give you a far more republican jury pool than Allegheny.

If Manning handles the re-trial, and either Orie loses, the fact of Manning's comments on fraud would be a basis for appeal on the grounds that Judge Manning had demonstrated bias against the defendants. The Ories, being a stubborn, entitled bunch, will appeal in any case. And THAT, my friends, gets extremely expensive.


I've always thought this Orie mess would make a great 2 part Law & Order episode - now I'm thinking it should be a whole series.

[Divernan]

12. Here's a fun link w/Pgh.blog

http://thatschurch.com/2011/03/03/boom/

"That’s Church is my little phrase stolen from Snoop Dogg in an episode of Monk. It means, “It is so. It is true. It is church.”
Snippets from Blog:

"I deep down thought with so many employees testifying that they had been instructed to do political work, that Jane was probably guilty. But these memos. Maybe she was trusting Jamie to put out the directive. Conundrum.
Then today … BOOM! goes the BOMB! on the Orie Sisters trial.

As the judge said, “Ray Charles could see that signature was doctored.” He then told the jury he was declaring a mistrial because “fraud had been perpetrated.” BOOM! goes the word FRAUD! in the BOMB! on the Orie Sisters trial.

I’m not a lawyer or a judge or a police officer, so I don’t know what the repercussions are for this, should they be proven, but as a regular person who has been following this trial from day one, and who sees that the entire defense might have rested on doctored documents, this feels like the true beginning of the end of Jane Orie.

Also, when you type Jane Orie into Daylife.com, Ray Charles comes up as a suggestion.
********************************************************************************************************************

This blog is a treasure trove of Oriephilia:
First of all, the scariest picture of Jane I've ever seen.

Commenters on the blog wrote of it:
"Kid comes in and screams, “Daddy, that picture scared the shit out of me!”
OK, well no… it was me who screamed when I opened this page. Gonna have bad dreams tonight."
AND
"I think we may have stumbled onto a repellant for the stink bugs."

[Bunny]

13. OMG that is one heinous picture!

It looks like at any minute she's going to hit the ground and start snapping and snarling at your ankles. :scared:

[Divernan]

2. Scaife's Trib-Review: Despicable fraud leads to Orie mistrial

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_725633.html

Pretty hard hitting and lengthy coverage in Scaife's Tribune-Review. I'd say the Ories wouldn't want to change the venue to Westmoreland County after this coverage.
(snips)

"An Allegheny County judge on Thursday brought a shocking end to state Sen. Jane Orie's corruption trial by declaring a mistrial after agreeing with prosecutors that the McCandless Republican's lawyer submitted fraudulent documents to the jury.

"It's deceitful, dishonest, despicable, and it's a crime," Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said about signatures on defense documents that he said appeared to be doctored or cut and pasted.

"I think you ought to look in your own house for the culprit," Manning told defense attorney William Costopoulos. Manning told Costopoulos he was not accusing him of anything "because I know you too well."

"I've never seen anything like this. I think it's incredible, and it's shocking," said John Burkoff, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who has been following the trial. "To try to find anything like this, you can't look to past trials, you have to look to movies."

Read more: 'Despicable' fraud leads to Orie mistrial - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_725633.html#ixzz1FdMjZkKw

[Divernan]

3. Butler County/former federal prosecutor also trashes Ories

Al Lindsay, a Butler attorney and former federal prosecutor, said the prosecution's 11th-hour accusation of forged documents made for "a very unusual circumstance" facing the judge.

"It's the type of thing that when someone submits a fabrication to the court, that's probably more serious that the original charges," Lindsay said.



Read more: 'Despicable' fraud leads to Orie mistrial - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_725633.html#ixzz1FdNJitN5

In other words, even if Ories prevailed in their claim that double jeopardy attaches on the original charges, they now face a more serious charge of submitting false evidence to the court!

[Divernan]

4. National coverage, including AP wire/Minneapolis-St.Paul area.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/117342383.html
"Manning scolded the defense for not providing the documents to prosecutors earlier in trial, violating a court order, saying that kept Claus from checking their validity before the jury had the case."

[Bunny]

5. I thought that tidbit was interesting.

The defense kept the information from the prosecution until almost the end of the trial? Doesn't that violate discovery rules, and doesn't it seem to implicate the defense attorney along with the Ories? I think the Orie Girls are toast.

[Divernan]

6. Yes, the defense attorney did violate the rules,

So if, or rather WHEN there's criminal prosecution for fraud, he'd be a co-defendant with the Orie girls, and they'll be pointing the fingers at each other. So the Orie girls will have to find a new defense attorney for a fraud trial. (And whoever is desperate to take on that job better get a big fat retainer up front!)

Of course, Jane Orie has a law degree and is a legislator, so her lawyer may foolishly have trusted her. That's no defense for him at this point. Neither can she claim she didn't realize the enormity of her crime. She specifically testified that she recalled these documents. I can just see the two Orie girls, with those evil expressions on their overly madeup faces cutting and pasting in the middle of the night and then telling their attorney, oh, look what we just found!

[Bunny]

7. To rub salt in Coustopoulos' wounds, his own words will come back to haunt him:

Unlike most of the evidence, which was exchanged by the two sides in pretrial discovery, that collection of papers was not presented until late in the trial and the papers were not available to the prosecution until a few days ago. They represented a significant part of the senator's defense. Mr. Costopoulos had shown them one by one in his cross-examination of Ms. Pavlot. Then, as well as in his final arguments, he mocked the fact that the former chief of staff said she didn't recognize them.

"Never saw it; never saw it," he said ironically as he cited Ms. Pavlot's testimony on the document sequence during his close to the jury.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11063/1129568-455.stm#ixzz1FeftbLqF

Well, if he trusted Orie because she's also an attorney, then he's an idiot. Wonder if he'll have to testify against her at the fraud trial? He'll face the wrath of the entire Orie clan! Could he face disbarment over this?

[Divernan]

9. If he is found to have known the documents were doctored, yes

he faces disbarment. The legal standard for knowledge is "If he knew or had reason to know" - in other words if he knew or SHOULD have known. Manning's comment that Ray Charles could see the documents were fraudulent pretty much says Costopoulos "had reason to know".

So Costopoulos is highly motivated to pin the whole thing on the Ories. He would be wise to refuse to represent them at the next trial. How can he later claim they are liars who deceived him if he continues to argue their innocence and present them as honest at another trial? Then you have to factor in what he can testify to because of attorney-client privilege. It is one Chinese fire drill, clusterfu*k of a mess for him and the courts. I doubt there are precedents in Pennsylvania case law for this matter.

Breaking news: New trial is to begin April 11 and Costopoulos has until March 25 to file an appeal that double jeopardy should attach. If the appellate court grants cert (certiorari) on that, i.e, agrees to hear the appeal, the new trial could be delayed for months.

[Bunny]

8. New trial date set for Orie

Judge Jeffrey Manning today set a new trial date for state Sen. Jane Orie for April 11.

Yesterday, Judge Manning declared a mistrial after the case went to the jury because of questions about whether documents entered into evidence by the defense had been altered.

Ms. Orie's attorney, William Costopoulos, said he would seek an appeal asserting that a new trial would violate his client's right to avoid double jeopardy.

That is due by March 25 and action on it could set back the new trial date for many months.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11063/1129676-100.stm#ixzz1Fej7doHD

I don't understand how this could be considered double jeopardy. It seems like quite a stretch for Costopoulos to try to prove. In any case, there will surely be appeals so it seems unlikely that the new trial will actually start next month.

[Divernan]

10. Double jeopardy attaches when there has been a conviction or acquittal

There has been neither in this case. So I'm hoping that as a matter of law, the appeals court will refuse to hear an appeal. Now if it then gets bumped up to the State Supreme Court, Justice Orie will have to recuse herself.

And even if there is a delay on retrying the original charges, the DA could proceed at any time to prosecute an action on the fraud of the doctored documents. So how can Costopoulos be co-defendant with the infamous Orie girls in one trial and defending them in another. Big conflict of interest there.

[Bunny]

11. Thanks. I enjoy your legal interpretations of the festivities.

And I'm no genius when it comes to style, but even I could show up for court looking more presentable than the Ories. :D

[Divernan]

14. Back in 1996, Jane Orie was alleged to have fraudulently written/forged a political endorsement

Isn't the internet just grand!?!? I found this 2003 article in the Post-Gazette, stating that Jane sued her political opponent in her first race for the Pennsylvania House (that would have been in 1996)because he alleged she had fraudulently written and forged an endorsement by then Allegheny County DA, Bob Colville. Jane dropped the suit. Bob Colville, a lifelong Democrat, is now a senior judge on the Pennsylvania Superior (appellate) court (not to be confused with his son, another Robert Colville who was a judge in Allegheny County Courts for 10 years). I don't know if Michael Smith is still around, but I wish some investigative reporter would track down the story on that allegedly forged endorsement. It's relevant as to past behavior.
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030817sisters0817p2.asp

"Jane Orie also is aggressive about defending herself against political slings and arrows. During her first run for the House, she filed two lawsuits against her Democratic opponent, Michael C. Smith, one regarding what she said was a negative phone campaign against her and the other charging defamation of character and slander over allegations that she had fraudulently written and forged an endorsement by then Allegheny County District Attorney Bob Colville."