Superiors deny Orie appeal

Pa's Superior Court has rejected the latest appeals from Jane Orie's defense team -- which possibly means her corruption retrial could start sooner rather than later. We'll update later with trial info when we get it.

From Joe Mandak at the AP:

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected double jeopardy and other appeals field by state Sen. Jane Orie in her public corruption case in Pittsburgh.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to obtain the court order on Wednesday, so it was unclear if the court rejected Orie’s claims or simply declined to hear them.

Orie had asked the court to prevent a mistrial. Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning last month declared a mistrial during jury deliberations when he ruled that two defense exhibits were forgeries.

Orie’s attorneys had asked the appellate court to remove the judge from the case and block a retrial by claiming prosecutors did not raise the forgery issue until they believed they were in danger of losing the case. Prosecutors deny that allegation.