Restitution made part of former lawmaker’s sentence in years-old case
Bill DeWeese, a former powerful state representative from Greene County, could have to pay restitution on top of the prison time he served for his 2012 conviction on corruption charges.
In the latest twist in a case that’s made its way through courts for more than a decade, the Superior Court ruled on April 28 that DeWeese – a Democrat who once held the position of Speaker in the Pennsylvania House – should have to pay the state back.
The ruling sends the matter back to the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas. A judge in that county previously stripped restitution from DeWeese’s sentence following a decision by another trio of Superior Court judges, who found in 2017 that the state of Pennsylvania can’t be a crime victim for the purposes of imposing restitution.
DeWeese, 70, who spent nearly three decades in the state House, was initially sentenced to repay more than $116,000 he stole from the state by having his staff campaign for him during their working hours. He served almost two years in prison following his conviction.
DeWeese is now a political consultant and registered lobbyist. He lost more than $3 million by forfeiting his pension under his conviction, court papers say.
The criminal case began a decade ago when DeWeese, a Democrat, was among the wave of politicians and aides from both major parties who were prosecuted under then-Attorney General Tom Corbett, a Republican, during the scandal known as Bonusgate.
DeWeese was later convicted of having had staff campaign on his behalf on state time between 2001 and 2006.
In 2012 a Dauphin County jury found DeWeese guilty of charges including theft, conflict of interest and conspiracy.
His appeal of his conviction has made it to federal court, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where he argued that key defense witnesses were improperly excluded during his trial.
DeWeese said he’s hopeful about that direction in his appeal.
“Witnesses went on the stand in 2012 and tried to recollect alleged political activity from 2002. You can imagine how I feel relative to the passage of the last 18 years,” he said. “I believe I gave honorable service to Pennsylvania. The day that Attorney General Corbett came after me, I believed I was not guilty, and I maintain that perspective to this very day. And I still have a fundamental hope that my appellate avenue within the federal judiciary will be received favorably.”
Meanwhile, the office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a fellow Democrat, appealed the Dauphin County ruling that eliminated restitution from DeWeese’s sentence.
The office argued successfully that restitution was required under the same law that dictates the forfeiture of pensions by public employees who are convicted of committing crimes related to their jobs.
In an opinion authored by Judge Alice Dubow, a three-member panel of the Superior Court ruled that that law was “unambiguous” and made the restitution “mandatory.” The court said that it would leave the amount of the restitution up to the lower court when it remanded the case again to Dauphin County.
DeWeese said he was “profoundly disappointed” in the new development, which occurred “after a Republican judge in Dauphin County essentially stated in open court that, with the combination of imprisonment and pension forfeiture, the commonwealth had been made whole.
“Mr. Shapiro decided it was incumbent upon him to march into the state Superior Court virtually the next day and caused me more travail,” he added.
Judge Carolyn Nichols joined in Dubow’s opinion in the ruling late last month.
In a dissenting opinion, the third member the appellate panel, Senior Judge James Colins, said the imposition of restitution against DeWeese was unnecessary given the millions he’d lost in state retirement benefits.
“This amounts to de facto double restitution being received by the Commonwealth,” Colins wrote.