Court denies DeWeese appeal
The appeal of former state representative H. William DeWeese, 63, who is serving prison time on corruption charges, was denied Friday by an appellate panel of the state Superior Court.
DeWeese, who was found guilty in February 2012 in a jury trial held in Dauphin County, is being held at SCI-Retreat in Luzerne County. He was sentenced by Judge Todd Hoover to a 2 ½ to 5 year prison term on five felonies related to using state employees and resources for campaigning.
The sentence came the same day he received the Democratic nomination for re-election to the House. DeWeese was later removed from the ballot by Commonwealth Court because of his felony conviction.
A request last year for emergency bail while his appeal was heard was denied. In the appeal, DeWeese’s attorney, William Costopolous, alleged that Hoover abused his discretion by limiting the number of defense witnesses that testified on DeWeese’s behalf.
The DeWeese appeal also claimed Hoover erred at trial in refusing to instruct jurors that campaign work done during a legislative day is not illegal if done on leave time.
He continued to make the argument that his trial should have been moved to Western Pennsylvania, where he lived, and state prosecutors committed misconduct at his preliminary hearing by reading only selective passages from his grand jury testimony.
In its decision Friday, the court instead focused on the percentage of work time spent by DeWeese staff members on his campaign from 2002 to 2006.
Senior Judge William Platt said prosecutors had used the salaries of four legislative staffers and an estimate of the hours each spent working on the campaign during state time to determine that DeWeese misappropriated $100,000 in services.
Nearly the entire amount, $90,000, was attributed to campaign work performed by DeWeese aide, Kevin Sidella. Sidella was responsible for fundraising for the campaign. He testified against his former boss with immunity from prosecution.
In its review, the appellate court reached the same conclusion as the lower court, stating it supported that courts’ finding that DeWeese stole more than $100,000 in services, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing him.
Costopolous said he plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
DeWeese served 35 years as the state representative of the 50th Legislative District, two of which were as Speaker of the House. He was one of 25 legislators and staff members arrested after then attorney general, Tom Corbett, launched investigations into illegal bonuses paid for campaign work and campaign work being done on state time.
DeWeese was the only sitting legislator to stand trial out of 25 Democrats and Republicans connected to the House who were arrested in a state corruption investigation.
DeWeese may be eligible for release in March under the Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive. RRRI provides an opportunity of early parole for nonviolent inmates who complete required programming and maintain positive institutional behavior. Ironically, DeWeese was chairman of the Rules Committtee of the House in 2008, when it unanimously voted to implement the RRRI program, and it was the same year the corruption scandal broke.