Former Pa. legislator says he’s innocent of corruption

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A once-powerful former Democratic state lawmaker and a staff aide said Thursday they are innocent of newly filed corruption charges that they siphoned millions of dollars in state grants from a nonprofit organization for personal benefit.

In addition, House Democratic officials said the caucus canceled a contract with a company a day after newly released grand jury testimony in the case suggested it got the work because its officers gave generously to Democratic candidates.

The lawyer for former House Democratic Whip Michael Veon also accused Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett of mounting a political prosecution.

“The evidence will show that Mike’s actions were not illegal and that many members of the Legislature from both sides of the aisle engaged in exactly the same conduct for years and years,” lawyer Joel Sansone said. “So why is it that no Republicans have been charged or even investigated in this matter?”

Veon’s aide, Anna Marie Perretta-Rosepink, said she is “100 percent innocent.”

Veon, 52, and Perretta-Rosepink, 46, were arraigned by a Harrisburg judge Thursday, a day after the attorney general’s office filed the charges. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 22.

Corbett has maintained that the investigation into the nonprofit group Beaver Initiative for Growth is separate from a wider, two-year legislative corruption probe that has brought Corbett accusations of partisanship.

Only Democrats have been charged so far in the two investigations. However, Corbett said Wednesday that the Beaver investigation began first and maintained that the legislative corruption probe involves Republicans and Democrats in both chambers.

Veon and Perretta-Rosepink are facing charges stemming from both investigations. Ten others with connections to House Democrats were charged in July in connection with an alleged scheme to use taxpayer money and resources to win elections.

The new charges allege that Veon misused the Beaver Initiative for Growth money for a variety of purposes. Some allegedly rewarded people who supported him politically. Some of the money, according to court papers, underwrote Veon’s creature comforts, such as a shower in BIG’s offices, or his legislative office expenses.

Veon and Perretta-Rosepink are charged with theft, misapplication of entrusted property, conflict of interest and conspiracy.

In the grand jury testimony released Wednesday, two former top House Democratic staff aides, Michael Manzo and Jeff Foreman, said they believed Delta Development Group Inc. got a contract because company officers contributed to House Democratic campaigns.

Both Manzo and Foreman were charged last summer in the legislative corruption probe.

A spokesman for House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said the Delta contract was terminated Thursday.

“Clearly the allegations that were in the grand jury’s presentment were serious, we were concerned about it, and it was the appropriate thing to do to terminate the contract immediately,” spokesman Brett Marcy said.

Marcy said the company helped small communities seeking state help draw up development plans and write grant applications.

Delta, which first got the House contract around 2004, has been paid a maximum of $10,000 a month since Dec. 1, when Eachus’ term as majority leader began. Before that, Delta’s contract allowed a monthly maximum of $30,000, Marcy said. He said he didn’t know how much Delta received in total.

Delta executives did not immediately return a message left Thursday evening at the company’s suburban Harrisburg offices. On Wednesday, Delta’s executive vice president, Eric Clancy, said all the claims the grand jury witnesses made about the company are untrue.

The company also has worked for the State System of Higher Education, receiving about $97,000 from 2005 to 2007, system spokesman Kenn Marshall said.

Marshall said he doesn’t know if the grand jury testimony will affect whether the system uses Delta in the future.