Orie trial halted over allegation of doctored documents

[Bunny]

The jury in the trial of state Sen. Jane Orie was ordered to suspend deliberations late this morning after the prosecution accused the defense of having submitted fraudulent documents among its exhibits.

Prosecutor Lawrence Claus showed three documents which he said showed evidence that the signature of Jamie Pavlot was cut and pasted from one document to another. Ms. Pavlot was Ms. Orie's top aide in the North Hills office and a major witness for the prosecution.


A clearly irate Judge Jeffrey Manning rejected the protest.

"Ray Charles could see that signature was doctored," he said, pointing to an image of one document projected on the wall. The three documents are 101A, 101B and 110. They are part of a package of 50 documents introduced into evidence.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11062/1129458-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml#ixzz1FYqBDbfu

You have GOT to be kidding me.

[blue neen]

1. "Ray Charles could see that signature was doctored"

Boy, these Orie's are something else! They're not even competent crooks! We should all thank them VERY much for wasting taxpayers' money.

[Bunny]

2. I'm surprised this wasn't noticed before the jury went into deliberations.

It would be a shame if they had to call a mistrial, but I don't think they can let the jury continue without bringing this to their attention.

[Divernan]

6. There were so many documents - boxes of exhibits

It's easy to overlook something. This especially happens when thousands of documents are produced in discovery between the parties, and then only a relative few are actually introduced as evidence at the trial. It's called papering your opponent. Luckily, someone on the prosecution went back, probably after the key witness testified she did not recall signing those 3 documents.

Fraud indeed, by Senator Orie - since the documents were supposed to be communications between herself and the witness, so she had to be the one who "verified" them to her attorney. And fraud on the taxpayer to have to pay for another trial.

I know for damn sure that Bill Costopuolos is not going to take the fall for Jane Orie on this - he would be disbarred.

ON EDIT: There's a link with the PG article to a PDF file of the three documents. You don't need to be an expert to see that the signature lines are not at the same angle as the rest of the typing, or that there's an odd whorl of ink in one of the signatures, as though it had originally been signed to a handwritten, not typed, note.

The Plot Thickens!

[Divernan]

4. Doctored by the Ories, that is! - cut & pasted signatures!

Judge Manning must be livid!

There is a critical sentence left out of the article excerpt in the OP, i.e., that Manning was referring to defense atty. Costoupoulos's protest that the documents were not altered.

"Prosecutor Lawrence Claus displayed three documents that he said showed evidence that the signature of Jamie Pavlot was cut and pasted from one document to another. Ms. Pavlot was Ms. Orie's top aide in the North Hills office and a major witness for the prosecution.

Defense attorney William Costopoulos said "these were not doctored."

A clearly irate Judge Jeffrey Manning rejected the protest."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11062/1129458-100.stm#ixzz1FZwsVA4M

[Bunny]

3. Mistrial declared.

And now her attorney wants to have everything dismissed because retrying her would be double jeopardy. What a crock.

[Divernan]

5. Check the Ories' photo at the link. Can someone buy them a comb or hairbrush?

A mirror? Some scrungies to hold their hair out of their faces? I don't mean to be petty about physical appearances, but these two look deranged, or like they've just gotten out of solitary in a mental institution. I lack the skills to post the photo here. Can anyone else?

Bill Costopoulos looks professional and dapper as usual. When necessary, a good trial lawyer sits his clients down and tells them how to manage their appearance in public. Maybe he tried, but they didn't listen.

[Bunny]

7. I gleefully join you in poking fun at their appearance!

Here's today's pic, and this is one of their better ones:

Here are all the girls, with their brother:

My all-time favorite, the Bride of Chuckie:

:rofl:

[PA Democrat]

9. ROFLMAO. Bride of Chuckie.

I love how Rob Rogers does Jane Orie:

[chemenger]

10. Janine looks more than a little deranged in the first picture

and they both look meaner than junkyard dogs. :scared:

Oh, BTW ... Bride of Chuckie :spray: :rofl: That's very, very funny!

[blue neen]

8. It looks like they have a lot of hair extensions, which would be in keeping with

the fact that everything they touch is phony.