Senator Orie's brother, Jack, faces contempt hearing.

[Divernan]

The Secret Service is analyzing the documents and the warrant presented to the court notes that Senator Orie had already been charged with evidence tampering, i.e, concealing and/or destroying evidence in the fall of 2009. Jack Orie's defense is that he is speaking out as a brother, not a member of the legal defense team or a party to the case. He has a valid legal point there. He was not subject to Manning's gag order. I'm surprised Judge Manning called this hearing, but I think tempers are frayed on all sides right now. Lawyers typically NEVER publicly criticize a judge or his/her handling of a case because judges never forget. There are dozens of ways judges can pay you and your future clients back in their courtrooms on subsequent motions/cases/appeals, etc. They will not only get the individual lawyer, but other lawyers in his/her firm, plus their fellow judges may also play payback.
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Sen. Orie's brother faces contempt hearing
Secret Service to analyze documents
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PDF
See the affidavit for the search warrant to retrieve documents in the Orie case.

The brother of state Sen. Jane Orie was ordered today to appear before a judge Friday to show why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court. The issue is whether he violated a Dec. 15 gag order prohibiting parties in Sen. Orie's corruption trial from speaking about it publicly.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning ordered Jack Orie, an attorney from McCandless, to appear before him at 10:30 a.m.

The order pertains to a story in today's editions of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in which Mr. Orie accused the district attorney's office of falsifying evidence that led to a mistrial last week in the case against Sen. Orie and her sister, Janine, an aide to state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin. Judge Manning halted the trial after declaring that several documents introduced by the defense had been doctored.

A search warrant prepared by the district attorney's office on Tuesday indicates that prosecutors are investigating the defense for possible charges of tampering with evidence and related offenses and that the U.S. Secret Service will analyze the documents.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11068/1130790-100.stm#ixzz1G8pT81Wb