Lawmaker testifies about basketball, cards with Veon

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March 8, 2010

By MARK SCOLFORO The Tribune-Democrat Mon Mar 08, 2010, 11:20 PM EST

HARRISBURG — One current and one former state lawmaker took the stand in the public corruption trial of their former colleague Mike Veon on Monday, telling jurors about the card games and taxpayer-catered meals Veon once hosted in his legislative office.

They were among the witnesses who testified as the defense began to put on its case Monday, a court session that ended with the presiding judge issuing a stern warning to one of Veon’s attorneys regarding his courtroom decorum.

Rep. Jim Wansacz, D-Lackawanna, said he played in Veon’s regular Tuesday night basketball games, after which the participants would often reconvene in the Capitol for dinner, often takeout ethnic food picked up by state workers.

Wansacz and former Rep. Dan Surra both testified that some of the get-togethers also included cigar smoking and beer drinking.

Veon was a busy man, often pulled in many directions during the day, Wansacz said.

“We did have to eat, and that was a way we could get together,” he said.

Surra, who lost his 2008 re-election campaign and now works for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told jurors that much of the talk during those events concerned legislation and floor strategy.

“It’s a room full of legislators and key staff – that’s what we do,” he said.

That testimony might help jurors decide whether the cost of the meals – and the use of public employees to go pick them up – was proper.

Surra said the card playing was “spades and hearts, games like that” and that he never saw anyone gambling for money.

Surra also said he felt that prosecutors with the attorney general’s office tried to intimidate him and sought to put words into his mouth when they interviewed him in the investigation that resulted in charges against the defendants.

Veon, a former Beaver County representative who was the No. 2 ranking House Democrat before his defeat in the 2006 election, is on trial with former aides Brett Cott, Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink and Steve Keefer. They are accused of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.

Another witness, House parliamentarian Reizdan Moore, testified about a meeting with Attorney General Tom Corbett he attended in early 2007 concerning the awarding of bonuses to legislative employees.

Moore said he was not aware that the two high-ranking Democratic caucus leaders he accompanied, Mike Manzo and Scott Brubaker, had been using the bonus system to reward staffers for helping on political campaigns. Both pleaded guilty to criminal charges in January and testified for the prosecution in the current trial.

Moore said Corbett referred to then-Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, who has since been charged in the investigation. Moore said Corbett told him to “let Bill know that he brought this on himself.”

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