HARRISBURG -- Drug offenses, gun charges, theft and drunken driving turned up in the backgrounds of some state lawmakers when the entire Pennsylvania General Assembly was checked against public records, news accounts and other sources.

At least five lawmakers were found to have convictions of criminal offenses. Six others had convictions in cases that were later expunged or stricken or had arrests that were resolved without convictions by completing a diversion program. Another five who turned up in The Associated Press investigation with records of arrests or citations either won acquittals or their cases were dropped.

In one case, a lawmaker's 1996 arrest for disorderly conduct in North Carolina remained, unresolved, on the books until the AP began asking about it. It was dismissed late last month.

The AP's background inquiry was undertaken as three current lawmakers face felony corruption trials next year related to the Bonusgate investigation into alleged corruption in the statehouse.

No felonies were uncovered and the misdeeds -- many dating back decades -- are not likely to result in expulsion under the Pennsylvania Constitution's language barring anyone from serving in public office who has been convicted of an "infamous crime."

But the state Supreme Court is poised to interpret that vague phrase in a pending case regarding whether a federal felony conviction should have prevented a man from serving as mayor in Wrightsville, a Susquehanna River town between York and Lancaster counties. Previous state court cases have determined that infamous crimes include all felonies, but former Wrightsville Mayor Steve Rambler's conviction was for a federal charge the state Superior Court said would have been a misdemeanor under state law.

State lawmakers' criminal histories raise questions about what crimes should be a bar to public office, as well as how accountable political candidates and officeholders should be for offenses committed decades ago. As lawmakers, should they should be held to a higher standard, or can years of public service outweigh past mistakes?

Mr. Rambler, the former Wrightsville mayor, pleaded guilty in 1996 to a federal felony charge of mailing threatening communications for sending about 30 letters -- threatening to make public sexually explicit photos of people he'd contacted through swinger's magazines -- unless they each paid him $50. Superior Court ruled in March that he should not have been removed from office, because the same offense would be a misdemeanor under state law. The York County district attorney is pursuing an appeal.

The high court could rule narrowly on the facts surrounding the case, or provide some broader guidelines to interpret the term "infamous crimes."

The AP's background checks on the Legislature may not have caught arrests made before computer records were kept, expunged cases, out-of-state charges or federal cases. Similar arrest histories may well turn up if comprehensive checks were made of lawmakers in other state Legislatures across the country, or of public officials at other levels of Pennsylvania government.

In the Pennsylvania General Assembly, among the 19 members with arrest records are three currently awaiting trial: Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, and Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless.

All three are charged separately with misusing their offices by diverting staff or equipment for campaign purposes, and all three have vigorously denied the charges. Mr. Perzel, a 16-term incumbent, lost re-election on Nov. 2, while Mr. DeWeese and Ms. Orie were re-elected.

Former Reps. Steve Stetler, D-York, and Brett Feese, R-Lycoming, are also among the defendants awaiting trial in the attorney general's Bonusgate investigation that has charged state lawmakers and aides with illegally diverting staff and government resources to run campaigns, and for other improper purposes. Mr. Orie, facing similar charges, is being prosecuted by the Allegheny County district attorney's office.

Former Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver, and former Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, are both serving prison sentences after being convicted of public-corruption charges in separate cases.

The most extensive arrest record the AP search turned up belonged to Rep. John Myers, D-Philadelphia. His only conviction was a February 1987 guilty plea to having an unlicensed .38-caliber handgun, with an obliterated serial number, concealed in his vehicle, according to court records. He was sentenced to 15 months' probation.

Mr. Myers also was charged in Philadelphia with assault with intent to kill in 1972, and marijuana possession in 1980, but both cases were dismissed. He was accused of shooting at someone in Philadelphia in 1981, but was acquitted.

He was sworn in to the General Assembly in 1995.

Mr. Myers did not return several messages seeking comment, but a House Democratic caucus spokesman said Mr. Myers' gun conviction was not grounds for his removal from office.

Rep. Jake Wheatley Jr., D-Hill District, pleaded guilty in 1992 to felony larceny and misdemeanor assault charges related to a fight in the parking lot of a Pontiac, Mich., shopping mall when he was 20 years old. He served two years of probation, and two newspapers reported in early 2003 he had the charges expunged shortly before he was sworn in.

He told the New Pittsburgh Courier in 2002 that he threw two punches and took someone's coat, calling it a heated argument that turned into a brawl.

Mr. Wheatley, now 38, also was charged with assault on a female in Guilford County, N.C., in 1995, but that charge was dismissed, according to the district attorney's office. A 1996 misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Guilford County had been "dismissed with leave" in 1998 after Mr. Wheatley did not appear in court, said Joe Davis with the Guilford County District Attorney's Office in a recent interview. But on Oct. 27, after the AP raised questions about the case, the charge was fully dismissed, Davis said. Mr. Wheatley did not respond to several messages seeking comment.

Rep. Joseph Preston, D-East Liberty, was found guilty of harassment by a district justice in 2007, after a former girlfriend said he grabbed her by the neck. He appealed and a county judge reversed the conviction.

Rep. Ronald Waters, D-Philadelphia, received a five- to 23-month sentence in 1981 after he was found guilty by a jury of possession with intent to deliver drugs. In a sentencing transcript, Mr. Waters asserted his innocence and said he would appeal.

Mr. Waters, who introduced a bill in 1999 designed to prevent defendants from using drug proceeds to post bail, said during a brief interview that he had committed no crime.

Records for a 1988 drug case involving Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-Delaware, failed to turn up in a courthouse search. The state police background check said the case resulted in a no-contest plea by Mr. Kirkland, who was 33 years old at the time.

Mr. Kirkland told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1992, during his first campaign for state House, that he had been addicted to cocaine and received treatment. "That's my past and I refuse to talk about it. That's been taken care of," he told The AP in July, then hung up.

The Inquirer said Mr. Kirkland's record was expunged after he paid restitution for the cost of the undercover drug purchases.

Two lawmakers have shoplifting convictions, according to state police: Sen. Leanna Washington, D-Philadelphia, in the suburb of Lower Merion Township, in 1977; and Rep. Gary Day, R-Lehigh, in State College, in 1988.

They are unquestionably minor offenses, but theft is a category of crimen falsi, and state appellate decisions have said crimen falsi violations amount to infamous crimes. Whether they are sufficient to warrant removal from office may one day be an issue for the courts to decide.

Mr. Day said he pleaded guilty to a summary citation for taking a box of film from a drug store as a 21-year-old student.

"This is not an infamous crime or anything that would disqualify me," he said.

Ms. Washington said she does not remember being arrested, adding that she has changed as a person since that period and that an old shoplifting offense should not keep someone from office.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-York, faced felony charges in 2002 of conspiring to falsify state-mandated sewage records related to a business he co-owns, Hydrotech Mechanical Services Inc. He avoided a conviction and completed the state's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program that is designed for first-time, nonviolent defendants.

Mr. Perry, who maintains his innocence, called it a "last-minute, at-the-courtroom deal that was never supposed to happen, but it did."

Rep. Tony Payton, D-Philadelphia, was arrested on felony drug charges in Philadelphia in 2002, at a home where cocaine, marijuana and barbiturates were recovered during a search. Mr. Payton said he had been picking up a high school friend at the very moment the friend's home was raided by police. The charges were dropped.

At least four current state lawmakers have been arrested for drunken driving -- Rep. Dave Levdansky, D-Allegheny, Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria and Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh. Levdansky, Boscola and Wozniak were all accepted into ARD. Levdansky may have lost re-election Nov. 2; his race had not been finally resolved as of late Friday.

The record of Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Allegheny, highlights the challenges of revisiting decades-old cases. The Pennsylvania State Police check system said Mr. Ferlo was found guilty of possession of marijuana and assorted pills in 1969 in Pittsburgh. He was 18.

The court file, however, includes a handwritten notation that indicates he was judged not guilty. Mr. Ferlo, for his part, said he does not think anything came of the case, and that he was not involved in drug activity, the heart of the allegations.

Sen. Shirley Kitchen, D-Philadelphia, was charged in 1981 with disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and obstructing highways or public passages. She said it was for a demonstration against the lack of services in a north Philadelphia neighborhood. Those charges were quickly dropped.

Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, was arrested for a liquor code violation in 1976 and for violating rules of polling places in 1986, according to court records. Charges in both cases were dropped.

First Published: November 14, 2010, 5:00 a.m.