HARRISBURG -- Former state Rep. Mike Veon's second political corruption trial has been postponed five months because of attorney scheduling conflicts.

The case had been scheduled for Sept. 13 but during a closed-door meeting with attorneys today Dauphin County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Bratton agreed to postpone it. Jury selection now is scheduled for Jan. 31.

In court filings, Veon attorneys Dan Raynak of Phoenix, Ariz., and Joel Sansone of Pittsburgh said their heavy case loads have them busy until January.

"It's purely a defense scheduling issue. We're ready to go trial any time. We can do it tomorrow," said Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the Office of Attorney General, which is prosecuting the case.

Mr. Veon already is serving a six-to-14-year sentence in the State Correctional Facility in Laurel Highlands for his conviction this spring in a separate case known as Bonusgate. That case centered around a scheme to use tax dollars to provide bonuses to state employees who worked on re-election campaigns of Mr. Veon and his associates.

In the second case, prosecutors allege that Mr. Veon and co-defendant Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink misused state funds given as grants to Beaver Initiative for Growth, a non-profit they ran.

Mr. Veon is a former 22-year state representative from Beaver County. Mrs. Perretta-Rosepink, who had been Mr. Veon's district office manager, also was convicted in the Bonusgate case but is free on bail.

Mr. Veon's attorney, Dan Raynak of Arizona, said the charges in both cases were trumped up by prosecutors motivated by the chance to grab headlines for their boss, Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett, who is running for governor.

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