Western Pa. state senator under investigation

PITTSBURGH - A Pennsylvania state senator has hired a high-profile criminal defense lawyer who says detectives have searched her office and seized computers.

Lawyer Jerry McDevitt told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last night that Allegheny County detectives searched Sen. Jane Clare Orie's office Friday as part of a grand jury investigation that apparently began a day before the November election.

He said an intern at the Republican senator's district office complained to the District Attorney's Office that political calls were being made there on behalf of state Supreme Court nominee Joan Orie Melvin, the senator's sister. Orie Melvin was elected to the state's highest court.

McDevitt said detectives with a warrant seized computers assigned to office staff, several laptops, and the office computer server. He said Orie's own computer was left behind. - AP