By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
HARRISBURG — A day after three of the four defendants, including former House leader Mike Veon, were found guilty on some of the charges facing them, Attorney General Tom Corbett said Tuesday that he was happy with the verdict in the first major trial connected to his high-profile “Bonusgate” investigation.
“We believe justice has been served with this verdict,” Corbett said during an afternoon press conference, “and that hopefully the people of Pennsylvania can have a little bit more faith in state government today now that these defendants have been convicted of stealing more than $2 million of their money.”
Although the attorney general secured 14 criminal counts against Veon was convicted on 14 of the 59 criminal counts facing him. His former aides, Brett Cott and Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink, were combined convicted of just eight of 64 counts against them, while another official, Stephen Keefer, was acquitted of all charges.
The conviction rate, 16 percent, led some critics to charge the investigation was mostly a failure.
But the attorney general said a more important stat than the counts was the fact that the jury found the defendants guilty in seven of the 11 “criminal episodes.” Some of the counts — in this case 33 of them — can be duplicative for the jury, he said.
Corbett said the most important part of the jury verdict was the conviction on the charge of conspiring to defraud taxpayers out of their money.
“You can’t have that with elected officials and staff,” he said.
The attorney general wouldn‘t reveal what sentence his office will recommend for the three convicted defendants, although he said he “personally” expects jail time.
The attorney general said his office continues to investigate all four caucuses in connection to the wide-ranging public corruption probe, which began in 2007.
Tags: Bonusgate, Bonusgate Tom Corbett, Mike Veon, Tom Corbett, Tom Corbett for governor
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