Pa. Rep. DeWeese Ordered to Stand Trial for Corruption

A Pennsylvania lawmaker has been held over for trial on corruption charges following a preliminary hearing.

KYW's  Tony Romeo reports that state representative William DeWeese stepped down as party whip -- the second-ranking Democrat in the Pennsylvania House -- when he was charged. And the alleged wrongdoing occurred while he was the Democratic leader.

During a preliminary hearing, a district judge heard testimony that campaign work was being done in DeWeese's capitol and district legislative offices (see previous story).

But DeWeese says it wasn't necessarily done on state time:

"I'd always asked for vacation days, for personal days, and to make sure people were using comp hours."

But DeWeese did not testify, and prosecutor Ken Brown spoke with reporters after the hearing:

"I'm only going to discuss what was presented in court today,  but there was no discussion in what was revealed that he talked about comp time at all."

DeWeese's lawyer called the charges against his client "petty."

(Photo by KYW's Tony Romeo)