Rep. declares innocence on witness stand

HARRISBURG - Over more than three hours today, conjuring the life and work of such historical figures as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, state Rep. Bill DeWeese took the stand in his political corruption trial to defend himself against charges that he directed his staffers to illegally perform campaign work.

At turns brash and bombastic, at others serious and contemplative, DeWeese told jurors that he knew some of his staffers enjoyed politics, but that he always directed them to keep their campaign work separate from their legislative responsibilities.

"I didn't do anything wrong ... and I still feel that way," the onetime top House Democrat told the jury of seven women and five men.

DeWeese, 61, is charged by the state Attorney General's Office with directing, condoning and even promoting that legislative staff work on political campaigns on the taxpayer time and dime. He has denied the allegations.

Under questioning from his defense attorney, DeWeese told jurors that the Madison and Hamilton helped design the political system that prevails today that requires him and others to "go to the people" every two years to seek reelection. Saying "God bless America," DeWeese praised a system where politics and legislative work sometimes blend together – but said he always reminded people to do campaign work responsibly.

He also said that when he was the House Democratic leader, he delegated many of the day-to-day responsibilities to his staff – and trusted them to do the right thing.

He contended that he didn't find out that House Democratic staffers were improperly working politics during the legislative day until after the state attorney general launched an investigation in 2007.

Once he learned of the improper activity, he immediately directed his top staff to let everyone in the House Democratic caucus know he wanted them to cooperate, he maintained.

"Tell the troops to destroy nothing," DeWeese said he told them at the time.

Taking the stand was a risky move for DeWeese, who left himself open to vigorous questioning from prosecutors. On cross-examination, Senior Deputy Attorney General Ken Brown kept pointedly asking questions designed to cast doubt over – or outright contradict - DeWeese's assertions that he did not know what was going on.

"Even though you were the guy driving the bus, where all this criminality is going on, you never once looked at the back of the bus. . . . The bus is on fire and you don't see it?" asked Brown.

DeWeese mostly kept his infamous temper in check, only at the end of questioning raising his voice and declaring: "Holy mackerel!"

Both the defense and the prosecution are expected to give their closing arguments this afternoon.

Just before wrapping up his questioning of DeWeese, defense attorney Bill Costopoulos showed the jury a handwritten note, from 2004, that DeWeese had asked be distributed to his legislative staff. At the time, another House member was under investigation for politicking on state time.

The note, from a top DeWeese staffer, read: "He [DeWeese] wants to make sure that staff activities remain within legal limits."