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State Supreme Court dismisses DeWeese appeal

3 min read

Bill DeWeese

The state Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by former state representative Bill DeWeese of his 2012 public corruption conviction.

The court, which agreed to hear the appeal in November, issued a one-sentence order Friday stating the appeal was dismissed having been “improvidently granted.”

DeWeese, 68, who served 35 years in the state Legislature and was a former House speaker, was convicted by a Dauphin County Court jury in February 2012 of conspiracy, conflict of interest and theft.

Investigators said DeWeese used his position to require staff to illegally perform campaign work on state time from 2001 and 2006. Several other state legislators were also charged and convicted in a sweeping corruption scandal that rocked the capital at that time.

DeWeese was sentenced in April 2012 to 2½ to 5 years in prison. He was fined $25,000 and ordered to pay $116,668 in restitution. DeWeese served nearly two years in prison before his release in March 2014.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on the issue of whether DeWeese’s trial attorney failed to preserve for appeal the testimony of 14 witnesses who DeWeese said would support his claim he directed staff to conduct campaign work only on their own time.

Reviewing that argument while DeWeese was seeking a new trial under the Post Conviction Relief Act, a Dauphin County Court judge noted DeWeese had presented 42 witnesses at trial, many of whom testified he had ordered them to keep campaign and state work separate.

However, the judge concluded, DeWeese’s own testimony and that of prosecution witnesses “was sufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The Supreme Court order dismissing the appeal apparently will let stand a May 2017 Superior Court decision upholding DeWeese’s conviction but vacating part of his sentence requiring him to pay restitution to the state.

The Superior Court had agreed with part of DeWeese’s post-conviction relief motion claiming the restitution was illegal because the state was not considered a “direct victim” in the case.

Superior Court ordered the case sent back to Dauphin County for resentencing, saying DeWeese’s sentence must be re-evaluated so as not to “disrupt the trial court’s overall sentencing scheme.” A hearing on the resentencing has not yet been scheduled by the Dauphin County Court.

DeWeese’s attorney, Gaetan Alfano, declined to comment on the Supreme Court decision. Joe Grace, a spokesman for state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, would only say the office has received the order and is reviewing it.

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