Update: Orie Melvin will be charged, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin is expected to be charged Friday as a result of a grand jury investigation looking into improper campaign activity, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The grand jury, which expires at the end of this month, met for more than five hours today.
Pa. Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin could be looking at an indictment by the end of the month, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports. She’s been under the microscope for years and would be charged with using taxpayer resources for campaigning. The accusation would follow a sprawling investigation against her sister, Senator Jane Orie, that yielded convictions earlier this year.
Reports the Trib:
An Allegheny County grand jury investigating state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin will hear testimony this morning as a deadline on recommending charges nears.
The grand jury’s two-year term expires by the end of the month, increasing the likelihood that District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s office would decide on charges, legal experts say. A previous grand jury recommended charges against two of Melvin’s sisters — former Melvin aide Janine Orie and Republican state Sen. Jane Orie of McCandless — for using state staff for political work.
…
University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff believes Melvin will be charged because of evidence prosecutors aired.
“Based on everything contained in the presentment relating to her sister, Janine, it’s surprising she hasn’t been indicted already,” he said.
Former Melvin law clerk Lisa Sasinoski testified in December at a preliminary hearing against Janine Orie that she did political work on state time, including working the polls on Election Day and writing speeches. A grand jury report against Orie mentioned Melvin’s name more than her sister’s and painted a picture of a judicial office immersed in partisan politics for almost two decades.
Orie Melvin, of Pittsburgh, was a PA Superior Court Judge from 1998 until her election to her current post in 2009.
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I filed “special appearances” SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION WAS ON THE TABLE”, IT CANNOT BE WAIVED OR BARTERED ETC. MY SECOND LAWYER I LATER HIRED, was suppose to get an injunction and help me collect my money judgments in FEDERAL COURT. D.Shawn White took my signature from another document and filed crap I never saw before. I have in my possession a letter from White he did his duty, NO judgments against me in STATE court…But all of a sudden he cannot do a federal collection because he now has amnesia how to do anything in Federal Court. The Federal Judge stopped my writ during collection proceedings BEFORE a hearing was held, practice LAW from the bench, coached and allowed perjury, forged documents and testimony from party’s who had NO standing to be heard in his court. Later he “deemed” my money judgments satisfied without proof I was ever paid. Third circuit on appeal who technically had no jurisdiction from a closed case, took the appeal and altered my final judgment that only had my name on the judgment and reclassified it as both my ex lawyers and mine when it is NOT.
The U.S. Supreme Court took my money, then simply DENIED my CERT. without reason or cause. Fraud, Perjury, Forgery, scheming and conniving among lawyers and judges? I wrote a really good CERT. of appeal, that should of been taken seriously for constitutional reasons, where our justice system has raged war on the laws of our land, putting others above the law? We are a land of LAW and rules where NO body should be above the LAW! SEE UNITED STATES WESTERN DISTRICT COURT, ERIE CASE NUMBER 06-87 ERIE (1:06-cv-00087-SJM), SEE: 3RD CIRCUIT APPEAL, NO. 11-3364 (supplemental state forgery of judges signature allowed?) Here is exactly what William K. Suter, Clerk wrote back to me BY Redmond K. Barnes Case Analyst. The petition for a writ of certiorari in the above entitled case was filed on September 14, 2012 and placed on the docket September 19, 2012 as No. 12-338. On October 29, 2012 a letter came from Clerk William K. Suter, stating the following: Re: Virginia Kurschinske v. Meadville Forging Company Case No. 12-338. Dear Ms. Kurschinske: The Court today entered the following order in the above-entitled case: The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. Odd, I won a jury trial verdict in Federal Court, the case was CLOSED except to collect what the debtors owed me and who was in contempt of a Final Federal Court Order. Some how a bitter ex lawyer can go to state court as an individual without subject matter jurisdiction or individual claim, Forge Judges signatures, make her own case, her own judgements and everyone turns a blind eye how she is stealing? perjury? fraud? Obstruction of Justice? A scheme that other flunky attorneys were willing for a cut to assist? A Federal Judge who refused to up hold his own final judgments and the jury verdict as a Article III court? WTF? I’ll continue to fight this. I was hoping Don Bailey who wasn’t afraid to go up against a trying to disbar him for 5 years. Other lawyers fear judges and protect themselves from their mighty Sanction 11 powers. Pathetic eh? NOW JUDGE ORIE? It appears our legal system REWARDS the bad apples and PUNISHES the good ones! My FEDERAL JURY Trial was CLOSED, a done deal, NO state Court could reopen it and retry it because a few rotten lawyers did NOT like how it turned out in FEDERAL COURT, NO FEDERAL Judge can later on go……ummmmmmm okie dokie lets alter it based on your forgery judges signatures, NO 3rd Circuit Court should of entertained any of this, let alone threaten me with PRISON slang. The US Supreme Court is giving the thumbs up for this kind of illegal scamming by just ignoring it and not addressing the crimes and wrong doings. I have re-written to John Roberts who is also on the commission over-sight and Jill Biden, Speaker of the House John Boener and others to whom I need to go to and get this matter resolved? GUESS WHAT NONE WILL RETURN A LETTER OR ACKNOWLEDGE MY LETTERS, even though I CERTIFIED-RETURN RECEIPT VERIFICATED THEY ALL GOT MY LETTERS! When did our legal system become a vertical organized racketeering corruption sess pool? STAY OUT OF ALLEGHENY………..MY CASE IS NOT THE FIRST TIME ATTORNEY’S FORGED JUDGES SIGNATURES OR ABUSED THE ALLEGHENY SYSTEM. James Marchewka, 43, of Venetia admitted on Thursday to more than 90 charges filed last year after an investigation by Pennsylvania State Police.
“It is a horrifying case of lawyer malfeasance,” said Court of Common Pleas Judge John DiSalle, one of four judges whose signatures Marchewka forged. “On behalf of the legal profession, I offer my sympathy to all the clients.”
According to the complaint, that paperwork included forged documents or unauthorized signatures from Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr.; Kate Barkman, director of Allegheny County Department of Court Records; Washington County Common Pleas Judges Janet Moschetta Bell, Katherine Emery, Paul Pozonsky and DiSalle; and attorneys Patrick Derrico and Colin Fitch.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/1221417-74/marchewka-comp…
http://youtu.be/cDcz3FK_S3M Bill Windsor of LAWLESS AMERICA who is interested in my story interviewed me for his up coming movie and one of the complaints to congress in Fed. 2013 Federal Judge could of helped me! But the system is NOW
Kathkeen Kane presents well and will certainly be the choice of Independents in November. It is her prosecutorial strength that encourages “We The People” to give her a shot at making the office the Public Serving Center it is meant to be.
Yikes. Another Republican Supreme Court Justice indicted. Although the shallow and superficial conventional media distort the Tea Party, it spontaneously formed as a network of those who see the Republican Party Insider Newtork as enriching and empowering themselves at expense of ordinary, taxpaying citizens.
The Democrats cannot be trusted to manage or spend money and, it seems, neither can the Union dominated Pennsylvania Republican Party.
I think Dave Freed needs to know that Pennsylvania does not have a Special Prosecutor statute. His conflicts, along with the Orie Melvin indictment, will lead many Tea Party voters in central part of the state that there is a need to end One Party Rule in the AG’s office.
Not many Tea Party will be inclined to vote for a Demcocrat but I think the Tea Party Voter will be hard pressed to get excited about Dave Freed or, perhaps, even vote for him. Dave Freed, like Steve Welch, is Tom Corbett’s man.
And there are too many Republicans getting rich from the Hershey Trust for Disadvantaged. Maybe not known now, but one never knows when Tom Ridge’s connection and Lynn Swann’s connection will be exposed.
So the first comment about the looming indictment of a Supreme Court Justice is a rambling complaint about local politics in a rural school district?
Rep Jeff Pyle and Senator Don Whites offices were heavily involved in, of all things, the Armstrong School District school board elections. They were instrumental in providing the information to get redistricting of voting regions, used their resources to produce propaganda against the former board of directors, White’s chief of staff and his former chief of staff ( now a teacher in the district) worked together to stop renovation projects and get the new board elected so the Armstrong County elite could get their expensive new high school instead and used their influence on the secretary of Ed resulting in the loss of $ 8 million to Armstrong School District taxpayers
They usurped the power of the duly elected school board by using their positions and using a power play. Pyles chief of staff was even bold enough to be school candidate Stan Berdell’s campaign manager and used office resources to help get him elected. On taxpayer time, computers were used for everything from printing propaganda to posting comments on websites under anonymous names. Their connections to the Armstrong County judge and solicitor was used from everything from stalling projects through the planning department to forcing the board to redistrict in the midst of a new census. This is just a glimpse of what happened. Why aren’t these two legislators being investigated also??