Ex-US Senator sentenced to 2.5-10 years

Former Pennsylvania Republican Senator Jane Orie has been ordered on Monday to serve from 2.5 to 10 years in state prison for using her taxpayer-funded legislative staff to do campaign work and forging defense exhibits to try to cover it up.

Presiding judge Jeffrey Manning said Orie may have received a shorter sentence if she hadn’t introduced fraudulent documents as evidence during her first trial in March 2011, which caused a mistrial.

“You stand convicted of crimes that demean the sanctity of all we do as lawyers,” said Judge Jeffrey Manning, adding that “the sin is overborne by the deflection; the crime overshadowed by the cover up.”

Prosecutors insisted Orie deserved incarceration because she showed no remorse and continued to minimize her crimes even when pre-sentencing investigators interviewed her.

On March 26, Orie had been convicted on 14 counts including five felonies ranging from theft of services, conflict of interest and forgery.

The judge has yet to decide whether Orie must repay up to USD 2 million in restitution, legal fees and other costs.

Orie had been elected to the Senate in a 2001 special election to fill an empty seat and was re-elected three times.

GMA/JR

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