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Former Pa. Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
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Former justice Melvin agrees to disbarment

Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette

Former justice Melvin agrees to disbarment

Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin has agreed to be disbarred as a result of her conviction on campaign corruption charges, which also led to her resignation from office.

Melvin submitted the resignation of her law license on Dec. 9.

That resignation was accepted Thursday by the Supreme Court and announced Friday.

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In her resignation, Melvin acknowledged she was the subject of a complaint pending before the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Former Pa. Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
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That stemmed from her 2013 conviction on charges that she had her state-paid Superior Court staff work on her political campaigns on state time when she ran for the Supreme Court in 2003 and 2009.

Melvin, 58, was also convicted of conspiring to use the state-paid staffers of her sister, former Republican state Sen. Jane Orie, to work on those same campaigns. Orie was disbarred by consent last month but plans to appeal her 2012 conviction on charges that she misused her own state-paid staff on her own campaigns, though she was acquitted of ordering her staff to work on Melvin’s campaigns.

Melvin’s defense attorney Patrick Casey was checking with Melvin on Friday to see whether she wanted him to comment on her disbarment.

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Melvin recently ended her appeals, which included challenging a sentence requirement that she send handwritten apologies for her actions on photographs of herself in handcuffs to other state judges.

First Published: January 16, 2015, 5:53 p.m.
Updated: January 17, 2015, 5:20 a.m.

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Former Pa. Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.  (Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette)
Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette
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