Bonusgate witness got big bonus

HARRISBURG -- The prosecution's star witness in the theft trial of former state Rep. Mike Veon took the stand for the fifth day and testified that over three years, he personally received more than $40,000 in secret state bonuses.

Mike Manzo, onetime chief of staff to former House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese, also admitted today to arranging to have the state pay separate year-end bonuses to his wife and a girlfriend.

In 2006, Manzo's wife, Rachel Manzo, then the director of the House Democratic Policy committee, received $15,185 in state bonuses.

"You ultimately made sure she got that bonus?" asked Bryan Walk, a lawyer for Brett Cott, one of three former Veon aides who are also on trial.

"I recommended it," Manzo replied.

Like her husband, Rachel Manzo was criminally charged in 2008, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in the so-called Bonusgate investigation and is to testify in the case. She now tends bar at a restaurant near the Capitol.

Prosecutors allege that Veon, a former Democratic whip, and Mike Manzo were the masterminds of a scheme to pay $1.4 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses to legislative staff as rewards for working on political campaigns. Veon's codefendants, Cott, Steve Keefer and Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink, are accused of helping carry out the scheme.

Defense lawyers also had Manzo revisit his earlier testimony about Angela Bertugli, a former beauty queen from southwestern Pennsylvania whom he admitted putting into a fake state job and later arranged to give a $7,000 bonus. Manzo testified last week that Bertugli, then a graduate student, worked on campaigns and did no actual legislative work.

"You put her on the state payroll for the purposes that she was your girlfriend?" Walk asked today.

"I put her on the payroll for a lot of political reasons as well," Manzo answered.

Bertugli is not charged in the case.

Walk, on cross-examination, repeatedly referred to the bonus program as a "scam" in which his client, Cott, had no involvement.

Walk asked Manzo if, in his 14 years as a House employee, he had attended any ethics training seminars.

"I don't believe I ever attended," said Manzo, 40, now a government and media consultant in Harrisburg. "I was actually scheduled for it about the time I was asked to resign."

DeWeese (D., Greene) forced Manzo from his $142,000-a-year job in November 2007, saying he had come to believe that his longtime aide was implicated in the bonus scheme. DeWeese, who faces separate Bonusgate charges not related to the bonuses, has said he had no knowledge of that scheme when it was under way.

Yesterday, Manzo acknowledged on the stand that he had spoken about his testimony with his wife.

Veon lawyer Dan Raynak seized on this point, asking Dauphin County Court Judge Richard A. Lewis before the lunch break to toss out Manzo's testimony entirely, arguing that Manzo had violated a court order barring witnesses from discussing testimony with each other.

Lewis denied the request, saying the order was aimed at witnesses testifying within a day of each other.

"She might not testify for three more weeks," Lewis said of Rachel Manzo.

Veon, 53, who represented Beaver County in the state House for 22 years, is charged with theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.

Manzo is set to return to the stand this afternoon when Michael Palermo, the attorney for Perretta-Rosepink, gets his turn at cross examination.