Jury picking set for Justice Joan Orie Melvin

Jury picking set for Justice Joan Orie Melvin

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection is set to begin for suspended Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin and her sister, Janine, who are charged with illegally using Melvin’s former Superior Court staff to run her political campaigns.

The sisters have denied wrongdoing. But Allegheny County prosecutors say Melvin used her state-paid staff to campaign for the state’s highest court back in 2003 and again in 2009 when she was elected as justice.

The sisters, who live in Pittsburgh’s North Hills suburbs, are also charged with conspiring with a third sister — former Republican state Sen. Jane Orie — to illegally use Orie’s state-funded staff to work on Melvin’s campaigns, too.

Orie is in prison for misusing her own staff on her own campaigns, but was acquitted last year of using her staff to help Melvin campaign.