“You stand convicted of crimes that demean the sanctity of all we do as lawyers…the sin is overborne by the deflection; the crime overshadowed by the cover up.”-Jeffrey A. Manning, Judge
On 4 June 2012, former Pennsylvania Republican Senator, Jane Clare Orie, was sentenced to as many as 10 years in state prison. She was convicted in March of using taxpayer money to run election campaigns.
Orie, who claims to be Christian, used her own taxpayer paid staff to conduct campaigns. She also introduced forged evidence at her first trial, which helped to get her the heavier sentence of up to ten years in prison.
Orie was convicted of 14 counts including theft of services, conflict of interest and forgery. The judge is still deciding how much in fines she will have to pay.
Former Warren County Sheriff, Larry Kopko, called Orie “the meanest” prosecutor he ever saw. She was called “The Ice Princess” by the Warren County press.
Orie still doesn’t think she did anything wrong, she admits that “Every staff was involved in campaigns…”, but stressed that it was not unusual for an elected official to use their taxpayer paid staff to help with elections. She’s not remorseful: “I’ll never stop doing what I did.”